2  'T-d-^^-T- 


H. 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Vxs,  Ben  B,  Lindsey 


I    Sett  '^^.^xn^^^ 


(SECTION  0 
UNIT  nam  3 


/ 


Institute  of  Industrial  Rp1^f> 

University  of  O^lfrltT""'' 
Los  Angeles  £4,  Cali- 


fornia 


ORGANIZED   LABOR 


^^^^ 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO..  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm 

TORONTO 


Organized  Labor 

ITS  PROBLEMS  AND 
HOW  TO  MEET  THEM 


BY 

A.  J.  PORTENAR 


i5eto  i^orli 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1912 


COPTRIGHT,  1912,  BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  in  October,  1912 


Printed  by  J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Co.,  New  York 


Ht) 


L?:) 


TO  ORGANIZED  LABOR 


Reflecting  every  human  frailty; 
Reflecting  every  human  virtue; 
Broad,  noble,  petty,  selfish; 
Liberal,  generous,  tyrannical,  arrogant; 
Working  injustice  while  crying  for  justice; 
Working  for  justice  while  suffering  injustice; 
More  good  than  evil,  more  sinned  against 
than  sinning; 


This  book  is  dedicated  in  the  hope  that  it 
may  be  of  service. 


111C181 


PREFACE 

Organized  labor's  to-morrow  is  in  the  making 
to-day.  Certainly,  this  proposition  is  axiomatic  in 
relation  to  all  men  and  all  institutions;  but  there 
come  times  when  the  fact  is  obtrusively  evident. 
An  hour  for  definite  decision  between  courses 
diametrically  opposed  is  an  hour  whose  influence 
may  determine  the  events  of  a  century  or  a 
millennium. 

Such  a  crisis  is  imminent  in  the  history  of 
organized  labor.  Two  contradictory  theories 
upon  which  to  mold  its  future  present  themselves 
and  there  can  be  no  compromise  between  them. 
Being  entirely  convinced  of  the  wisdom  of  one  of 
these  courses  of  action,  and  hence  necessarily 
entirely  opposed  to  the  adoption  of  the  other,  I  am 
impelled  to  strive  with  all  my  power  to  induce 
my  fellow  workmen  to  set  their  feet  upon  that 
path  which  secures  to  them  in  their  days  reason- 
able enjoyment  of  the  good  in  life,  and  at  the 
same  time  leads  them  onward  to  the  making  of 
progressively  better  conditions  for  their  posterity. 
It  is  a  choice  between  light  and  life  as  against 
darkness  and  death,  and  I  am  for  light  and  life. 

A  word  concerning  a  matter  which  touches  me 
closely.  Having  been  informed  that  the  settled 
policy  of  the  publisher  precludes  the  use  of  the 
Allied  Printing  Trades  label  upon  books  published 
by  it,  I  have  requested  and  obtained  the  permission 
of  the  Macmillan  Company  to  announce  that  this 
book  was  manufactured  under  union  conditions. 

Brooklyn,  Sept.  24,  1912.        A.  J.  Portenar. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     What  Shall  We  Do? 2 

II.    A  Glance  Backward 4 

III.  Syndicalism 14 

IV.  By  Way  of  Explanation 28 

V.    Organization  By  Industry 33 

VI.    Arbitration 42 

VII.     The  Strike 51 

VIII.    Insurance  Benefits 55 

IX.     The  Apprentice 76 

X.  Co-operative    Trading    (with    an 

Added   Feature) 84 

XI.    Related  Things 103 

XII.    Summary 119 


VII 


ORGANIZED  LABOR:  ITS  PROBLEMS 
AND  HOW  TO  MEET  THEM 

I.    WHAT  SHALL  WE  DO? 

WHEN  the  McNamaras  confessed,  press, 
pulpit,  and  platform  poured  out  such  a 
volume  of  admonition  to  organized  labor  that  if 
the  value  of  advice  could  be  measured  by  its  quan- 
tity, the  question.  What  shall  we  do?  would  be 
unnecessary.  Unfortunately  for  us,  copious  as 
counsel  has  been,  it  did  not  even  touch  upon  our 
problem.  Some  of  it  was  well  intentioned;  but 
not  all.  There  was  malice  in  it,  with  little  pains 
taken  for  its  concealment;  there  was  exultation  in 
it,  for  that  we  had  sinned  and  been  found  out; 
there  was  patronizing  forgiveness  in  it,  if  we  would 
go  and  sin  no  more.  But  that  which  was  con- 
spicuously lacking  in  most  of  it  was  the  sympa- 
thetic consideration  of  underlying  causes,  and  the 
means  whereby  those  causes  could  be  removed  or 

[1] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

so  minified  that  their  terrible  fruits  would  ripen 
no  more.     And  it  did  not  tell  us  what  to  do. 

Lincoln  Steffens  endeavored  to  find  out  what 
had  happened  and  what  had  made  it  happen;  a 
hard  task.  And  then  he  sought  to  prove  it  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  complacent;  which  was  in- 
finitely harder.  I  think  he  went  searching  for  the 
Holy  Grail.  But  he  did  not  tell  us  specifically 
what  to  do. 

While  pubhc  attention  was  still  focused  upon 
Judge  Bordwell's  court  in  Los  Angeles  a  delegation 
went  to  Washington  (and  some  of  the  salt  of  the 
earth  which  has  not  lost  its  savor  was  in  that  dele- 
gation). They  presented  a  petition  to  the  Presi- 
dent asking  for  the  appointment  of  a  commission 
to  look  into  the  industrial  problem  from  every 
angle.  Whereby  they  most  pertinently  showed 
oflScialdom  what  to  do.  President  Taft  has  since 
acted  upon  that  suggestion.  But  their  action  pro- 
vided no  answer  to  the  question,  What  shall  we  do? 

One  man  has  sounded  the  true  note.  Rabbi 
Stephen  S.  Wise,  on  December  24,  1911,  speaking 
in  his  Free  Synagogue,  said:  "Let  it  not  be 
imagined  that  the  Los  Angeles  outrages  are  the 
final  condemnation  of  organized  labor,  or  that 
this  is  the  time  to  deal  a  crushing  blow  to  the 

[2] 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  DO? 

body  of  workingmen  in  the  land,  who  must  more 
than  ever  before,  in  the  words  of  Mazzini,  organizey 
and  ORGANIZE,  and  ORGANIZE  !" 

So  far  as  a  generahzation  may  serve,  this  ad- 
vice cannot  be  improved  upon.  But  there  remain 
to  be  worked  out  the  details  of  its  application. 
It  does  not  mean  proselytism  alone.  The  mis- 
sionary spirit  has  always  been  strong  in  trades 
unionism,  and  there  need  be  no  doubt  that  this 
duty  will  be  thoroughly  performed.  But  there 
is  much  likelihood  that  the  wider  significance  of 
organization  will  remain  unnoticed,  and  the  in- 
tensive cultivation  of  its  possibilities  remain 
neglected,  as  has  been  the  case  in  the  past.  In 
other  words,  we  gather  an  army,  and  then  fail  to 
provide  it  with  equipment  and  drill. 


[3] 


II.    A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

Maybe  we  can  tell  better  what  to  do  if  we  con- 
sider what  we  have  done,  and  why.  The  trade 
union  came  into  being  because  it  was  needed;  be- 
cause the  helpless  individual  found  in  concerted 
action  with  other  individuals  his  best,  if  not  his 
only  means  of  resistance  to  the  arbitrary  exercise 
of  power,  to  injustice,  to  cruelty.  It  was  a  hard 
fight.  Wealth,  and  the  merciless  power  of  wealth; 
the  statute  law,  forbidding  workmen  to  co-operate 
for  the  purpose  of  increasing  wages,  and  fixing 
maxima,  with  its  interpreters  zealous  for  its 
rigorous  enforcement;  legislative  bodies  deaf  to 
the  cries  of  those  who  were  denied  the  privilege 
of  a  voice  in  the  selection  of  their  members;  and 
the  broken-spirited  timidity  of  those  in  whose 
behalf  the  union  was  created;  these  were  the  forces 
to  be  contended  with  and  overcome.  Incredible 
hardships  and  misery  were  the  burnt  offerings 
laid  upon  the  altar  of  its  upbuilding,  and  these 
being  given,  the  failure  of  the  principle  was  im- 
possible. 

[4] 


A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

Thus  trade  unionism  was  born.  Its  weapon 
was  the  strike.  The  employer  who  cared  nothing 
for  the  loss  of  the  services  of  one  or  a  few,  regarded 
with  apprehension  the  cessation  of  work  by  all  his 
employees.  Later,  and  of  less  potency,  came  the 
boycott  and  the  label.  So,  losing  a  battle  here 
and  winning  a  battle  there,  unionism  became  a 
powerful  lever  for  the  bettering  of  the  condition 
of  the  working  masses.  The  tide  of  war  was  in 
its  favor. 

But  the  evident  advantages  of  organization  and 
combination  could  not  be  monopolized  by  one 
party.  It  is  not  necessary  to  this  argument  to 
trace  in  detail  the  forms  of  unionism  adopted  by 
employers,  for  their  development  is  proceeding 
under  our  very  eyes.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
at  this  day  the  associations  of  employers  are  re- 
covering some  of  the  power  lost  by  individual 
employers  during  the  evolution  of  the  unions  of 
employees,  and  so  long  as  the  contest  continues 
to  be  waged  on  the  lines  measurably  successful 
in  the  past,  so  long  will  the  wealthier,  more  com- 
pact, and  (in  everything  but  numbers)  more 
powerful  organization  continue  to  regain  what  it 
had  formerly  lost.  The  tide  of  war  has  set  the 
other  way. 

[5] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

That  changes  in  the  policy  and  methods  of 
trade  unionism  are  essential  to  the  maintenance 
of  its  influence  as  a  factor  in  industrial  develop- 
ment is  conceded  by  all  unionists  who  have  given 
thought  to  the  matter,  but  there  is  no  such  una- 
nimity in  conclusions  as  to  what  these  changes 
ought  to  be.  Temperament  has  much  to  do  in 
shaping  the  opinions  of  individuals,  and  circum- 
stances will  undoubtedly  exert  powerful  if  not 
controlling  influence  over  the  tendencies  of  the 
mass.  The  most  distinctive  departure  from 
traditional  methods  that  is  being  advocated  is  at 
the  same  time  the  most  extreme.  What  is  known 
in  Europe  as  syndicalism,  but  wliich  has  been 
more  widely  referred  to  in  this  country  as  "direct 
action,"  has  been  thrust  upon  our  attention  in 
such  a  manner  and  by  such  men  as  to  make  it 
evident  that  the  first  and  most  important  decision 
that  trades  unionists  will  have  to  make  will  be 
the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  aim  and  program 
of  syndicalism.  There  are  many  who  conceive 
syndicalism  to  be  merely  a  gospel  of  violence,  and 
they  have  been  led  to  that  belief  by  the  mistaken 
characterization  of  newspapers  when  commenting 
on  the  McNamara  affair.  But  it  is  much  more 
than  that.     It  is  my  intention  to  give  a  brief 

[6] 


A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

review  of  the  inception  and  history  of  that 
movement,  but  before  doing  so  it  is  pertinent 
to  consider  in  our  survey  what  has  caused  in- 
cidental violence  in  strikes,  and  what  has  come 
of  it. 

The  picket  line  is  usually  the  point  of  contact  at 
which  antagonistic  forces  clash;  and  little  wonder 
is  it  that  it  should  be  so.  But  let  us  see  how  the 
resort  to  violence  has  worked  out  for  us,  from 
the  standpoint  of  material  advantage.  Not  be- 
cause that  is  the  only  or  the  highest  standpoint, 
but  because  that  is  the  view  upon  which  its  advo- 
cates depend  for  justification. 

A  bitter  grievance  of  organized  labor  for  many 
years  has  been  the  issuance  of  injunction  orders 
in  labor  disputes.  The  first  writs  of  this  character 
were  in  restraint  only  of  acts  of  violence,  and 
were  defended  as  being  necessary  because  of 
violence  or  the  probability  of  violence.  The 
value  of  the  writ  to  one  of  the  parties  was  quickly 
recognized,  and  its  scope  was  broadened,  until 
now  it  is  a  common  practice  of  the  courts  to  forbid 
us  the  exercise  of  ordinary  natural  rights.  With- 
out hesitation,  judges  enjoin  us  from  leaving  em- 
ployment, from  inducing  others  to  enter  or  leave 
employment,   from  paying   assessments   for  the 

[7] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

maintenance  of  fellow  members  on  strike;  they 
order  us  to  refrain  from  using  public  thoroughfares 
or  speaking  to  other  persons,  particularly  employees 
of  a  struck  shop.  And  the  alleged  justification 
for  these  invasions  of  constitutional  rights  is  now, 
as  for  the  earlier  and  more  limited  writs,  the  pre- 
vention of  violence.  Meanwhile,  only  too  often, 
we  ourselves  have  lent  color  to  the  claim  usually 
made  by  petitioners,  that  the  restraining  order  is 
essential  to  the  conduct  of  their  business  and  the 
safety  of  their  employees.  And  when  the  injunc- 
tion is  issued,  its  effect  is  far  greater  than  its 
language  really  warrants,  for  to  many  uneducated 
men  it  is  an  instrument  full  of  vague  terrors,  and 
serves  excellently  to  impress  them  with  an  inde- 
finable but  none  the  less  real  feeling  that  the  law 
is  actively  working  against  them,  with  the  con- 
sequent weakening  of  their  confidence  of  victory. 
Has  violence  served  us  when  we  consider  this 
consequence? 

Violence  begets  violence.  The  policeman  has 
no  discretion  when  blows  are  struck  or  hard  names 
called.  It  is  true,  he  is  sometimes  extremely 
officious  in  the  performance  of  his  duty,  but  it  is 
also  true  that  at  least  as  often  he  is  inclined  to 
sympathize  with  the  strikers.     Extra  labor  thrown 

[8] 


A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

on  him  leads  to  exasperation,  and  sooner  or  later 
he  uses  his  club,  not  only  because  he  is  ordered 
to,  but  because  he  wants  to.  If  the  job  is  too  big 
for  the  police,  out  come  the  militia,  frequently 
officered  by  men  implacably  opposed  to  labor 
unions;  and  occasionally  even  regular  troops. 
Their  violence,  no  matter  to  what  lengths  it  may 
go,  has  the  sanction  of  law.  Do  we  evince  much 
wisdom  when  we  by  violence  thus  bring  upon  our- 
selves the  violent  resources  of  the  state? 

But  worse  than  all  other  consequences,  violence 
is  the  excuse  for  arming  thugs,  private  detectives 
and  professional  strikebreakers,  ostensibly  for 
protection  against  us,  frequently  for  active  ag- 
gression upon  us.  And  then,  when  the  union 
man  is  shot  or  clubbed,  the  murderous,  irre- 
sponsible assailant  claims  self-defense,  and  has  a 
'prima  facie  case  based  on  the  violence  so  often 
indulged  in  by  our  people,  but  which  may  be 
entirely  absent  from  a  particular  incident.  Has 
any  advantage  accrued  to  us  in  this  regard  from 
violence? 

I  know  and  appreciate  the  provocations.  I  know 
how  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  union  men  fix 
a  standard  upon  which  are  based  the  compensa- 
tion and  working  conditions  of  those  whose  narrow 

[9] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

selfishness  is  the  chief  factor  in  rendering  those 
efforts  and  sacrifices  useless;  who  are  dragging 
us  down  at  the  very  time  we  are  trying  to  pull 
them  up.  I  have  felt  the  instinctive  impulse 
to  treat  them  as  the  savage  treats  his  enemies. 
But  I  cannot  know  the  motives  which  actuate 
them,  nor  the  necessities  that  compel  them,  nor 
can  I  bring  them  to  see  eye  to  eye  with  me,  if 
my  approach  is  a  menace  and  my  argument  a 
club. 

Can  a  picket  line  be  peacefully  maintained  and 
at  the  same  time  successfully  conducted.'*  I 
know  it  can,  for  I  have  had  my  share  of  such 
work,  done  in  that  way,  and  well  done.  Men 
have  been  met  going  to  and  from  their  work  in 
struck  shops,  have  been  reasoned  with,  walking 
alongside  of  them  for  a  block  or  two,  then  parted 
from  with  a  good  night  or  good  morning.  Met 
again  the  next  day;  and  again,  and  still  again. 
At  first  the  policeman  is  suspicious  and  the 
"rat"  apprehensive.  But  it  soon  becomes  ap- 
parent that  he  need  not  fear  even  the  "construc- 
tive assault"  of  a  detaining  hand  placed  on  his 
coat  sleeve.  He  becomes  accustomed  to  having 
some  one  walk  a  couple  of  blocks  with  him  night 
and  morning.    He  is  invited  in  somewhere,  if  he 

[10] 


A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

is  willing  to  go,  and  the  matter  is  talked  over 
around  a  table  with  something  on  it.  Think  of 
him  as  a  "scab"  if  you  will,  but  your  business  is 
to  get  him  out  of  that  shop,  and  this  way  is  far 
more  efficacious  than  "arf  a  brick." 

So  much  for  incidental  violence,  which  subsides 
when  the  particular  difficulty  which  has  given  rise 
to  it  has  been  adjusted.  But  what  of  a  program 
of  deliberate  and  continued  violence  .f*  It  is  not 
necessary  to  point  out  the  hideousness  of  such 
crimes  as  that  of  Los  Angeles.  Even  those  who 
resort  to  them  make  no  attempt  at  ethical  justifica- 
tion. There  is  no  defense  except  that  the  end 
justifies  the  means,  and  the  means  are  efficient  for 
securing  the  end.  Have  such  means  been  effi- 
cient? Let  the  unhappy  position  of  organized 
labor  when  the  McNamara  confessions  startled 
the  world  furnish  the  answer.  A  program  like 
theirs  can  never  secure  a  better  test  of  its  effective- 
ness and  ultimate  value  to  the  cause  it  professes 
to  serve  than  was  given  it  in  the  past  five  years, 
with  the  confession  of  the  McNamaras  for  its 
culmination,  and  the  bitter  humiliation  and  re- 
tardation of  organized  labor  for  its  result. 

I  know  and  appreciate  the  dejection  that  comes 
with   the   conviction   that   the   giant   unions   of 

[11] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

capital  are  not  at  all  or  only  in  small  degree 
vulnerable  by  the  weapons  hitherto  depended 
on;  that  their  vast  resources  enable  them  to 
carry  out  the  coldly  deliberate  intention  to  de- 
stroy or  make  impotent  the  associations  of  em- 
ployees. Again  I  say,  the  savage  instinct  is 
comprehensible  to  me;  and  again,  more  emphati- 
cally than  before,  I  say  that  to  indulge  it  is 
absolutely  fatal. 

I  would  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood  in  saying 
this.  I  would  not  wish  the  union  man  who  may 
read  this  to  suppose  me  to  mean  that  never, 
under  any  circumstances,  should  there  be  in  his 
mind  the  thought  of  violent  resistance  to  ag- 
gression. For  instance,  had  I  been  in  Lawrence 
and  concerned  in  the  textile  strike,  I  would  a 
thousand  times  sooner  fight  against  the  unlawful 
attempt  to  prevent  the  sending  forth  of  the  chil- 
dren than  against  the  lawful  entry  of  scabs  into 
the  mills.  The  idea  of  armed  rebellion  enters  my 
mind  more  readily  in  connection  with  political 
than  industrial  affairs,  because  I  believe  that  our 
industrial  condition  will  not  be  hopeless  until  our 
political  rights  are  destroyed.  In  an  age  and  in 
a  country  where  education  and  the  franchise  are 
the  guaranteed  privileges  of  the  humblest,  I  have 

[12] 


A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

abounding  faith  that  the  school  book  and  the  ballot 
will  make  unnecessary  the  rifle  and  the  bomb. 
But  should  my  faith  be  not  well  founded,  should 
these  means  be  insufficient,  then  I  prefer  the 
thought  of  Cromwell's  Ironsides  to  the  Jacquerie. 
So  much  by  way  of  explanation.  But  of  rioting 
on  the  picket  line  and  dynamite  explosions  on 
non-union  jobs,  I  would  not  modify  one  word  that 
I  have  written. 

Hence  the  first  answer  to  the  question,  What 
shall  we  do?  is  a  negative.  We  shall  not  resort 
to  open  or  furtive  violence.  Those  to  whom  an 
ethical  reason  is  sufficient  need  not  be  urged  to 
refrain  from  it.  Those  who  see  in  it  a  means 
of  advancement  should  be  satisfied  that  the  best 
to  be  hoped  from  it  is  temporary  gain,  certain 
to  be  followed  by  punishment  for  the  guilty  and 
disaster  for  the  movement.  The  two  reasons 
together  should  control  us  all. 


113] 


III.    SYNDICALISM 

A  word  may  convey  an  idea  as  a  lightning 
flash  iUumines  a  scene;  yet  to  define  the  word  may 
be  as  difiicult  as  to  explain  the  genesis  of  the 
lightning.  Syndicalism  is  not  defined  when  you 
call  it  trades  unionism,  yet  it  is  an  evolution  of 
trades  unionism;  neither  is  it  defined  when  you 
call  it  Socialism,  yet  it  certainly  is  a  modification 
of  Socialism.  It  is  not  anarchy,  but  in  some  of 
its  aspects  it  seems  closely  akin  to  anarchy. 
Syndicalism  proclaims  for  its  objective  the  col- 
lective ownership  of  the  means  of  production, 
which  is  the  familiar  doctrine  of  state  socialism; 
yet  syndicalism  is  different  from  state  socialism, 
and  hostile  to  it,  (so  much  so,  indeed,  that  the 
line  of  fissure,  already  clearly  discernible,  will 
almost  certainly  result  in  a  separation  of  ir- 
reconcilable elements) .  The  propaganda  of  social- 
ism (I  use  the  term  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is 
currently  understood)  is  wholly  political.  It  ex- 
pects to  realize  its  ideals  through  the  eventual 
capture  of  the  machinery  of  government,   and 

[14] 


SYNDICALISM 

while  many  of  its  adherents  are  trade  unionists, 
it  regards  the  trade  union  as  more  or  less  of  an 
obstacle    to    its    development.     Syndicalism,    on 
the  contrary,  cares  nothing  for  political  success. 
It  makes  no  attempt  to  secure  amelioration  of 
industrial    conditions    through    the    law-making 
power,  and  does  not  seek  representation  in  law- 
making  bodies.     Syndicalism   ignores   the   state 
as  now  organized,  and  expects  to  destroy  both 
the  industrial  and  political  organizations  at  the 
same  time  and  by  the  same  means — by  what  it 
calls  direct  action.     Socialism  seeks  to  influence 
the  action  of  trades  unionists  as  voters;  syndical- 
ism endeavors  to  control  the  trade  union  as   an 
industrial  group.     The  theory  of  syndicalism  is 
to   make   private   ownership   of   the   utilities   of 
production    impossible    by    making    it    entirely 
unprofitable.     Its  method  of  reaching  this  result 
is  by  the  general  strike,  which  means  cessation  of 
work  by  the  entire  industrial  population  and  the 
complete   immobility   of  all   the   instruments   of 
production.     The  general  strike  would  make  the 
continuance    of    private    ownership    impossible 
because  it  would  make  that  ownership  useless. 
Untilled  farms,  idle  machinery,  empty  factories, 
immobile  transportation  facilities — all  these  pro- 

[15] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

duce  no  projfits  and  are  valueless  to  their  nominal 
owners.  The  general  strike  would  make  the 
existing  government  obsolete  because  it  would 
make  it  powerless.  Government  might  enact 
statutes,  but  it  could  not  enforce  them;  it  would 
have  soldiers,  but  it  could  not  feed  them,  clothe 
them  or  move  them.  The  workers  would  lay 
down  their  tools  as  employees;  when  they  picked 
them  up  again  it  would  be  as  owners,  and  the 
social  revolution  would  be  accomplished. 

The  leaders  of  the  syndicalist  movement  are  well 
aware  that  the  general  strike  is  only  a  theory. 
But  with  the  general  strike  as  its  ultimate  object, 
syndicalism  gives  practical  effect  to  its  conceptions 
by  tactics  designed  to  continuously  decrease  the 
margin  of  profit  accruing  to  the  private  owner  of 
an  industry.  Wage  increases  are  constantly 
sought  because  no  wage  is  held  to  be  a  just  one 
which  is  less  than  100  per  cent,  of  the  income  of 
the  industry.  Syndicalism  will  not  be  a  party  to 
agreements  for  the  adoption  of  wage  scales  for  a 
definite  time,  for  it  must  be  free  to  strike  at  any 
time.  It  is  not  so  important  whether  a  strike 
succeeds  or  fails  of  its  immediate  object.  Strikes 
cause  loss  and  decrease  profits.  If  the  strike  is 
won  it  is  the  prelude  to  another;  if  the  strike  is 
[161 


SYNDICALISM 

lost  it  is  the  prelude  to  another.  And  there  is 
always  the  possibiHty  that  any  strike  may  spread 
from  group  to  group  until  the  general  strike  is 
accomphshed  by  a  series  of  lesser  strikes. 

There  remains  in  the  armorium  of  the  syn- 
dicahst  one  other  terrible  weapon.  At  work  in- 
side the  mill  or  factory  he  is  more  to  be  dreaded 
than  on  strike  outside.  Sabotage  will  even  more 
reduce  the  profit-making  power  of  the  industry 
than  the  interruptions  caused  by  strikes.  Possibly 
some  readers  do  not  know  the  meaning  of  the 
word;  therefore  an  explanation  is  permissible. 
It  is  related  that  on  an  occasion  a  French  work- 
man, in  a  fit  of  anger,  took  off  his  sabot  or  wooden 
shoe  and  threw  it  into  the  midst  of  some  ma- 
chinery. He  was  dumfounded  at  the  devastation 
he  had  caused.  The  idea  of  doing  injury  to  ma- 
chinery or  product  found  many  applications, 
and  the  practice  was  given  the  name  of  sabotage. 
So  much  for  the  legend.  But  in  "The  Romance 
of  Words,"  by  Ernest  Weekley,  its  derivation 
is  given  as  from  the  verb  saboter,  to  "skimp  work." 
The  sabot  (wooden  shoe)  has,  it  seems,  a  secondary 
meaning  in  popular  speech,  as  referring  to  any 
kind  of  an  inferior  article;  hence  saboter;  hence 
sabotage.     The  ways  in  which  sabotage  can  be 

[17] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

applied  are  limited  only  by  the  ingenuity  of  those 
who  apply  it.  Emery  powder  can  get  into  ma- 
chinery; alum  may  find  its  way  into  flour;  woolen 
or  cotton  goods  may  be  made  defective  in  the 
weaving;  many  things  may  happen  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  goods  for  shipment,  and  during  trans- 
portation. 

Syndicats  ouvriers  (Workingmen  syndicates)  is 
the  French  equivalent  for  trades  unions.  This 
use  of  the  word  syndicate  is  somewhat  unfamiliar 
to  our  ears,  but  it  is  nearly  enough  synonymous 
with  the  word  "association"  to  convey  a  self- 
evident  meaning.  French  trades  unions  of  the 
present  are  divided  into  two  classes,  known  re- 
spectively as  syndicats  rouges  (those  which  have 
adopted  the  revolutionary  program),  and  syn- 
dicats jaunes  (those  which  restrict  their  efforts  at 
improvement  within  constitutional  limits). 

In  more  or  less  vague  form  the  idea  of  a  general 
strike  had  been  presented  in  continental  Europe 
from  time  to  time  for  many  years,  but  its  adoption 
as  the  definite  policy  of  an  organized  body  appears 
to  date  from  1894.  In  that  year  there  was  held 
at  Nantes  a  joint  congress  of  French  trades 
unionists  and  socialists  at  which,  by  a  vote  of 
65  to  37,  with  9  abstentions,  the  general  strike  was 

[18] 


SYNDICALISM 

adopted  as  a  policy  in  preference  to  political 
agitation.  At  Limoges,  in  1895,  an  association 
was  formed  by  representatives  of  those  trades 
unions  which  in  the  previous  year  had  voted 
affirmatively  at  the  congress  of  Nantes.  This 
association  assumed  the  title  of  Confederation 
Generale  du  Travail  (since  commonly  known  as 
the  C.  G.  T.),  and  it  was  as  a  noun  descriptive 
of  the  policy  of  this  body  that  the  word  syndi- 
calisme  came  into  use.  The  C.  G.  T.  made  but 
little  progress  until  1902.  From  that  date,  how- 
ever, it  has  exercised  a  continually  increasing 
influence  in  industrial  disputes,  until  now  it  is  a 
factor  of  considerable  importance.  An  approxi- 
mate estimate  is  that  one-third  of  French  trades 
unions  are  affiliated  with  the  C.  G.  T.  {syndicats 
rouges),  and  the  remaining  two-thirds  are  of  the 
syndicats  jaunes.  But  any  such  estimate  of 
comparative  strength  must  be  modified  by  a  con- 
sideration of  the  forceful  and  determined  spirit 
which  actuates  the  smaller  body.  The  C.  G.  T. 
is  a  fighting  institution.  Also  there  are  no  doubt 
aligned  with  it  some  unions  which  are  impelled 
more  by  hope  of  immediate  benefit  than  by  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  to  its  principles;  while  at  the 
same  time  there  are  unions  classed  as  syndicats 

[19] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

jaunes  whose  allegiance  is  no  more  securely  fixed. 
It  is  probable  that  any  marked  success  of  the 
C.  G.  T.  would  attract  many  of  the  syndicats 
jaunes,  while  a  decisive  reverse  would  mean  the 
detachment  of  some  unions  now  enrolled  as 
syndicats  rouges. 

The  C.  G.  T.  in  1909  declared  a  general  strike 
in  aid  of  the  strike  of  the  postal  and  telegraph 
employees,  and  in  1910  made  a  similar  declaration 
in  favor  of  the  association  of  railway  servants. 
In  each  case  the  response  was  limited,  and  the 
strikes  were  eventually  settled.  But  it  is  not 
likely  that  the  C.  G.  T.  had  any  illusions  as  to 
the  result,  being  well  aware  of  its  inability  to 
enforce  its  order.  But  it  discounts  failure  and  is 
insensible  to  defeat.  Its  action  was  in  accordance 
with  the  adopted  system  of  syndicalism  which 
has  been  stated  by  M.  George  Sorel  (a  French 
Socialist  writer  of  distinction  who  has  made 
himself  its  apologist  and  defender)  as  follows: 
"By  means  of  methodical  economic  agitation — 
that  is,  by  strikes  systematically  and  incessantly 
repeated — to  lead  up  to  the  general  strike." 

I  have  been  at  some  pains  to  define  syndicalism 
because  it  is  here,  in  organized  form,  and  ener- 
getically pushing  its  propaganda.     The  Industrial 

[20] 


SYNDICALISM 

Workers  of  the  World  (commonly  referred  to  as 
the  I.  W.  W.)  is  a  prototype  of  the  French  C.  G.  T., 
and  teaches  identical  objects  and  identical  means 
for  their  attainment.  Like  the  C.  G.  T.,  it 
comprises  both  trades  unionists  and  socialists, 
and  has  enlisted  the  extremists  in  both  move- 
ments. I  am  convinced  that  trades  unionism 
in  the  United  States  will  sooner  or  later  reach  a 
point  where  it  will  be  compelled  to  definitely 
decide  whether  the  road  it  shall  take  and  the  goal 
it  shall  seek  shall  or  shall  not  be  the  road  and  the 
goal  pointed  out  by  the  I.  W.  W.  The  question, 
What  shall  we  do.^^  will  assume  many  phases  and 
require  many  answers,  but  this  decision  is  funda- 
mental, and  upon  the  choice  we  shall  make 
between  the  mutually  exclusive  programs  of  un- 
compromising war  and  evolutionary  development 
will  depend  the  character  of  all  the  decisions  that 
must  follow. 

I  do  not  minimize  the  features  of  the  program 
of  syndicalism  which  are  naturally  attractive  to 
trades  unionists  in  general,  nor  those  which  will 
prove  alluring  to  some  among  us  who  are  even 
now  unconscious  syndicalists,  although  they  may 
be  unacquainted  with  the  word.  I  have  seen 
the  printed  opinions  of  some  newspaper  writers 

[21] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

on  the  subject  to  the  effect  that  among  the  better 
paid  and  more  thoroughly  organized  unions 
affihated  with  the  A.  F.  of  L.  the  I.  W.  W.  can 
make  no  headway,  or  can  make  none  unless  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  is  continuously  defeated  in  efforts  to 
increase  wage  scales  and  better  conditions.  To 
this  opinion  I  can  only  partially  subscribe.  It 
is  true  that  here,  as  in  France,  syndicalism  will 
gain  many  converts  if  it  wins  victories,  and  will 
find  its  ranks  depleted  if  it  meets  reverses.  But 
in  large  measure  the  choice  will  be  a  matter  of 
temperament  rather  than  of  affiliation  or  of 
comparatively  favorable  conditions.  Agreements 
fixing  wage  scales  and  schedules  of  hours  for  defi- 
nite terms  are  customary  in  American  industries. 
Agreements  for  the  submission  of  disputes  to 
arbitrating  bodies  variously  constituted,  while 
not  so  common,  are  also  frequently  made.  But 
there  is  always  an  element  which  is  opposed  to 
entering  into  them  for  the  same  reason  that 
actuates  syndicalists  in  refusing  to  make  any 
agreements,  namely,  they  desire  to  be  free  to 
strike  at  any  moment  they  may  deem  opportune; 
and  this  element,  whenever  and  wherever  it  is 
in  control  of  the  governing  machinery  of  its 
organizations,  does  not  hesitate  to  break  agree- 

[22] 


SYNDICALISM 

ments,  whether  they  are  for  the  arbitration  of 
disputes  or  are  intended  to  create  a  condition  of 
stability  in  regard  to  wages  and  hours  for  a  stated 
time.  To  minds  thus  constituted  so  much  of 
syndicaHst  precept  as  denies  the  necessity  or 
value  of  such  agreements,  declines  to  make  them 
and  repudiates  them  when  made,  will  be  ex- 
tremely attractive,  and  will  well  serve  the  ener- 
getic organizers  of  the  I.  W.  W.  in  their 
work. 

Another  proposal,  and  one  which  will  appeal 
with  greater  force  to  a  much  larger  number  in  the 
ranks  of  trades  unionism,  is  the  conception  that 
workers  should  be  organized  on  the  basis  of  the 
industry  rather  than  of  the  trade.  Much  ad- 
vantage may  accrue  to  the  I.  W.  W.  if  those  who 
oppose  syndicalism  should  assume  an  attitude 
of  hostility  to  this  idea,  which  is  the  natural 
and  evolutionary  tendency  of  unionism. 

Still  another  doctrine  of  the  I.  W.  W.  which  has 
already  been  received  with  much  favorable  com- 
ment by  union  men,  and  deservedly  so,  is  the 
declaration  that  the  interests  of  those  whose 
wages  were  the  lowest  and  whose  condition  was 
the  most  pitiable  should  receive  first  and  greatest 
consideration. 

[23] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

This  is  a  policy  as  wise  as  it  is  generous,  and 
embodies  a  well  merited  reproach  to  the  strong 
unions  which  have  thus  far  consistently  neglected 
those  who,  through  lack  of  organization,  or  be- 
cause of  the  unskilled  character  of  their  employ- 
ment, were  unable  to  help  themselves. 

But  after  due  allowance  is  made  for  what  may 
be  commendable  in  the  policy  and  principles  of 
syndicalism,  there  still  confronts  us,  grim  and 
terrible,  its  declaration  of  unceasing  war;  its 
program  of  strike,  misery,  destruction  and  death; 
its  assumption  that  only  through  this  valley  of 
the  shadow  can  we  attain  the  sunlit  mountains 
of  peace  and  contentment.  To  quote  M.  Sorel 
again:  "It  is  the  only  process  by  which  society 
can  be  purged  from  the  evils  which  now  beset  it, 
and,  purified  by  the  fire  of  revolution,  can  realize 
its  loftiest  ideal." 

Reason  and  conscience  declare  it  is  not  the  only 
way.  But  it  may  be  made  to  seem  the  only  way. 
Two  forces  whose  mutual  antagonism  is  deadly 
are  exerting  pressure  from  opposite  directions 
toward  a  common  point.  On  the  one  hand  there 
is  the  terrific  energy,  the  intense  single-minded- 
ness  and  sincerity  of  syndicalism,  which  draws  up 
plainly  and  presents  powerfully  an  indictment 

[24] 


SYNDICALISM 

whose  counts  are  vivid  pictures  of  injustice,  with 
effects  varying  in  degree  from  ordinary  hardship  to 
degrading  misery.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  the 
brutal  determination  to  abate  not  one  jot  of 
profitable  injustice  despite  that  misery.  Those 
who  fear  syndicalism  most  and  have  most  cause 
to  fear  it  are  nevertheless  those  who  most  as- 
siduously give  it  life  and  growth.  In  tempera- 
ment extremists  of  both  classes  are  alike,  and 
against  both  must  we  contend. 

Consider  the  logical  consequences  of  the  "irrita- 
tion" strike  as  a  common  feature  of  industrial 
life.  With  infinite  difficulty,  after  many  hard 
battles,  some  unions  have  secured  recognition 
as  responsible  bodies  with  which  agreements 
may  be  made  for  the  establishment  of  stable 
conditions  for  definite  periods.  Some  unions  are 
still  vainly  demanding  such  recognition  and  still 
fighting  for  it.  There  can  be  no  question  that  if 
peace  and  stability  are  necessary  to  the  employer, 
they  are  equally  necessary  to  the  employee.  By 
the  use  of  the  "irritation"  strike  to  force  con- 
cessions we  deliberately  destroy  all  hope  of 
stability  and  steadiness  in  industry.  Chronic 
uncertainty  punctuated  by  periods  of  violent 
upheaval  would  become  the  ordinary  conditions 

[25] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

of  existence.  And  it  should  be  remembered  that 
employers  might  resort  to  the  same  tactics.  The 
initiation  of  that  sort  of  disturbance  might  be 
undertaken  by  them  to  exhaust  our  powers  of 
endurance  as  readily  as  by  us  to  exhaust  theirs; 
in  either  case  with  results  fatal  to  every  gratifica- 
tion that  brightens  the  lot  of  ordinary  people. 
We  may  have  plans  we  hope  to  carry  out;  what 
use  to  make  plans  without  an  hour's  certainty 
of  opportunity  to  earn  the  means  necessary  to 
their  fulfillment.'*  There  may  be  pleasures  to 
which  we  look  forward  with  eagerness;  what  hope 
of  pleasure  in  a  life  devoted  to  unending  strife, 
with  enforced  truces  taken  only  to  recuperate 
from  exhaustion.  We  may  have  duties,  such  as 
the  education  of  children;  what  possibility  of 
giving  our  children  better  opportunities  than  our 
own  in  a  society  so  continually  convulsed  that  it 
is  doubtful  if  we  can  always  give  them  bread  .f* 

Look  now  at  the  effects  of  sabotage  as  a  common 
feature  of  industrial  life.  All  the  evils  that  follow 
in  the  train  of  the  "irritation"  strike  would  be 
intensified.  Even  the  periods  of  truce  compelled 
by  exhaustion  would  be  rendered  more  precarious. 
The  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  employer  that 
he  must  protect  himself  against  the  destruction 

[26] 


SYNDICALISM 

of  his  product  on  its  way  through  the  factory  and 
to  the  consumer  would  necessitate  the  creation  of 
a  numerous  corps  of  spies,  and  this  in  its  turn 
would  breed  a  feeling  of  universal  suspicion.  In- 
stead of  good  will  and  co-operation  for  common  pur- 
poses, the  always  impending  fear  of  treachery  would 
be  paralyzing,  and  the  spies  would  undoubtedly 
be  numerous  enough  and  clever  enough  to  make 
almost  all  intended  actions  futile.  A  further  conse- 
quence would  be  that  the  damage  done  and  the  ex- 
pense of  guarding  against  such  damage  would  be 
added  to  the  cost  of  products,  and  would  increase 
by  so  much  the  burden  on  ourselves  as  consumers. 

And  if  through  these  two  policies  the  conception 
of  the  general  strike  should  ever  be  realized,  it 
would  not  be  war  with  which  we  would  be  con- 
fronted. War  is  too  mild  a  term  to  describe  such 
a  state.  Imagine  every  human  activity  in  a 
condition  of  immobility.  Then  visualize  if  you 
can  the  demons  that  would  be  loose:  Darkness, 
terror,  famine,  rapine,  carnage,  with  pestilence 
to  crown  the  cataclysm.  Our  world  would  be  an 
inferno  and  we  the  damned  souls  in  it. 

No;  that  is  not  the  road  to  redemption.  There 
must  be  a  modus  vivendi — a  way  to  live — while  we 
work  out  our  destiny,  and  we  must  find  that  way. 

[27] 


IV.    BY  WAY  OF  EXPLANATION 

There  is  in  surgery  a  process  known  as  over- 
correction. If  a  bone  or  joint  is  deformed  by 
inclining  from  a  straight  Hne  to  one  side,  the 
abnormity  is  sought  to  be  cured  by  forcibly  in- 
clining the  deformed  member  to  the  other  side. 
Perhaps  the  principle  of  overcorrection  has  been 
applied  in  the  foregoing  chapters  in  the  effort 
to  discourage  violence,  and  an  impression  created 
which  may  have  tended  to  discourage  aggressive- 
ness. But  the  fact  remains  that  organized  labor 
must  be  militant.  Those  who  talk  of  the  interests 
of  capital  and  labor  as  identical  state  only  a  half 
truth  so  long  as  the  industrial  organization  of 
society  remains  as  it  is.  Take  any  industry  at 
all  for  an  illustration.  Employers  and  em- 
ployees are  mutually  interested  in  creating  as 
great  a  product  as  possible.  The  fruit  of  their 
labors  forms  a  fund  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
industry  and  of  those  engaged  in  it.  But  when 
the  division  of  that  fund  is  made,  then  their 
interests  are  diametrically  opposed.  The  greater 
[28] 


BY  WAY  OF  EXPLANATION 

the  share  of  either  party,  the  less  will  be  that  of 
the  other.  It  is  the  function  of  the  labor  union 
to  secure  for  the  workers  the  largest  possible 
share  of  that  fund.  To  continue  the  effectiveness 
of  the  union  for  that  function  it  has  become 
necessary  that  we  consider,  What  shall  we  do? 

I  have  some  suggestions  to  offer,  none  of  them 
startling  or  dramatic,  none  of  them  wholly 
original.  Sometimes  an  inventor  makes  a  new 
combination  of  old  ideas.  Perhaps  that  is  the 
utmost  that  I  can  claim.  It  is  an  axiom  that 
humanity  seeks  to  satisfy  its  desires  along  the 
line  of  least  resistance.  Along  the  line  of  least 
resistance  I  would  guide  organized  labor  if  the 
power  of  imparting  convictions  is  vouchsafed 
to  my  pen. 

We  have  heretofore  depended  principally  on 
one  weapon,  and  many  times  have  I  heard  its 
use  defended,  and  a  tendency  to  use  less  wasteful 
substitutes  hotly  condemned,  on  the  ground  that 
the  strike!  the  strike!  the  strike!  was  the  means 
by  which  our  predecessors  won  the  position  we 
occupy,  and  was  the  only  efficient  weapon  by 
which  we  could  retain  it.  I  have  heard  arbitra- 
tion agreements  denounced,  because  they  limited 
the  right  to  strike.  I  have  heard  officers  abused 
[29] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

because  they  showed  a  disposition  to  compromise 
comparatively  trifling  matters,  instead  of  im- 
mediately resorting  to  the  strike,  or  adopting  a 
tone  that  might  easily  lead  to  one;  and  I  have  seen 
shops  lost  by  strikes  that  were  avoidable. 

The  fact  is,  our  problem  has  changed,  and  the 
tactics  of  the  pioneers  of  unionism  are  not  ap- 
plicable to  the  conditions  of  to-day.  The  em- 
ployers have  learned  unionism  from  us,  and  they 
have  bettered  the  instruction.  We  must  be 
pioneers  again,  and  if  we  make  full  use  of  the 
resources  at  our  command,  we  will  find  no  difli- 
culty  in  continuing  the  onward  march,  tem- 
porarily checked  by  adherence  to  outworn  ideas. 

Let  me  recall  to  the  attention  of  the  reader  the 
following  passage: 

"But  there  is  much  likelihood  that  the  wider 
significance  of  organization  will  remain  unnoticed, 
and  the  intensive  cultivation  of  its  possibilities 
remain  neglected,  as  has  been  the  case  in  the 
past.  In  other  words,  we  gather  an  army  and 
then  fail  to  provide  it  with  equipment  and 
drill."   (p.  3). 

Organized  labor  has  made  itself  a  powerful 
force  by  an  extremely  limited  application  of  the 
principle  of  co-operation.  How  plainly  wisdom 
indicates  that  the  course  it  should  pursue  is  an 

[30] 


BY  WAY  OF  EXPLANATION 

extension  of  the  same  principle.  Our  mistake 
hitherto  has  been  that  we  have  confined  our  con- 
certed action  solely  to  the  narrow  field  of  our 
interests  in  production.  We  have  raised  wages, 
reduced  hours,  and  more  or  less  bettered  working 
conditions.  In  our  hands  we  had  and  have  an 
implement  with  which  marvelous  results  have 
been  accomplished,  even  though  such  limited 
use  has  been  made  of  it;  yet  we  have  failed  to 
grasp  the  fact,  elemental  and  clearly  perceptible, 
that  the  same  implement  is  capable  of  producing 
results  measurable  only  by  the  uses  we  make  of  it. 
But  it  has  seemed  to  be  the  tacit  assumption 
that  the  trade  union  has  no  functions  outside  of 
the  shop  or  outside  of  those  things  that  directly 
pertain  to  the  shop.  The  mistake  of  most  of  us 
has  been  to  regard  the  matter  of  employment  as  a 
detached  thing,  unrelated  to  all  the  other  in- 
cidents of  daily  life,  instead  of  an  integral  part  of 
that  life.  Every  attempt  to  widen  the  field  of 
co-operative  action  is  bitterly  opposed  on  the 
ground  that  the  union  should  not  depart  from 
its  proper  sphere,  which  such  minds  conceive 
to  be  confined  absolutely  to  the  questions  that 
may  arise  directly  between  themselves  and  em- 
ployers.    The  force  of  circumstances  is  slowly 

[311 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

compelling  a  recognition  of  the  error  of  that  view; 
it  is  being  brought  home  to  us  that  the  wages, 
the  volume  and  the  conditions  of  employment 
are  indirectly  but  none  the  less  powerfully  influ- 
enced by  every  aspect  of  organized  society.  We 
are  beginning  to  understand  that  how  we  spend 
our  money  affects  our  interests  as  vitally  as  how 
we  earn  it;  hence  the  adoption  of  those  imperfect 
instruments,  the  label  and  the  boycott.  And  it 
may  be  hoped  that  eventually  we  will  understand 
that,  living  in  a  society  the  members  of  which  are 
all  interdependent,  we  cannot  separate  our 
interests  in  any  relation  of  life  from  our  interests 
in  every  other. 

If  I  were  asked  to  put  into  one  sentence  my 
answer  to  the  question,  What  shall  we  do?  I 
would  say.  Co-operate  for  mutual  benefit  and 
protection  in  many  ways  as  you  already  co-operate 
in  one.  Let  that  sentence  stand  for  my  thesis, 
and  in  the  discussion  which  follows  I  will  en- 
deavor to  show  how  I  would  equip  and  drill  the 
army  we  have  gathered. 


[32] 


V.    ORGANIZATION  BY  INDUSTRY 

Shall  organization  in  the  future  be  in  the  form 
of  allied  industrial  groups  rather  than  by  crafts? 

Twenty  years  ago  this  question  was  a  new 
one;  to-day  it  is  being  hotly  debated;  ten  years 
hence  the  answer  will  be  unequivocal. 

The  reply  of  radical  trade  unionism  the  world 
over  is  an  uncompromising  affirmative,  whether 
it  be  given  by  the  C.  G.  T.  in  France,  the  Syn- 
dicalists in  England,  or  the  I.  W.  W.  in  America. 
But  the  more  conservative  unionism  hesitates. 
It  debates  the  pros  and  cons;  it  seeks  to  discover 
which  is  the  better  plan.  It  apparently  assumes 
that  either  form  of  organization  will  serve,  and 
that  the  question  to  be  decided  is  one  of  com- 
parative merits. 

Loosely  joined  federations  of  allied  trades,  both 
local  and  national  in  scope,  have  long  existed, 
and  the  experience  of  these  bodies  furnishes  the 
basis  of  fact  upon  which  both  proponents  and 
opponents  rely  for  concrete  illustrations  of  their 
respective  contentions.     Many  things  have  hap- 

[33] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

pened  in  the  history  of  these  federations  which 
give  point  to  the  arguments  of  those  in  the  op- 
position, and  there  have  been  instances  in  which 
federations  have  formed  and  later  have  dissolved 
by  reason  of  the  clashing  selfishnesses  of  the 
elements  which  composed  them.  The  wisdom 
of  "going  it  alone"  is  a  matter  of  heated  and 
bitter  controversy. 

It  might  seem  proper  here  to  summarize  the 
arguments  pro  and  contra,  but  it  would  be  a  waste 
of  time  and  space  to  do  so.  In  reality,  the  debate 
is  vain.  Organized  labor  will  inevitably  form 
itself  into  industrial  groups,  not  as  a  matter  of 
choice,  but  through  the  irresistible  pressure  of 
necessity,  and  because  the  reason  for  doing  so 
is  the  fundamental  reason  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  unionism.  It  was  the  obvious 
need  for  mutual  assistance  that  led  to  the  forma- 
tion of  trades  unions;  it  is  the  same  need,  still 
obvious,  that  will  lead  to  the  formation  of  in- 
dustrial unions. 

In  nearly  all  industries  to-day  employers  are 
banded  together  in  protective  associations,  and 
they  act  as  a  unit  when  any  one  of  their  number 
is  involved  in  an  industrial  dispute.  They  make 
contracts,  frequently  overlapping,  with  the  various 

[34] 


ORGANIZATION  BY  INDUSTRY 

craft  unions  employed  in  their  industry,  and  to 
the  extent  that  they  are  united  in  action  while 
the  unions  act  without  coherence,  there  exists 
a  condition  analogous  to  that  of  the  single  em- 
ployer of  olden  days  facing  his  unorganized  em- 
ployees. The  results  that  follow  may  best  be 
understood  from  a  practical  illustration  which  I 
will  take  from  my  own  trade. 

The  newspaper  publishers  of  Chicago  are  mem- 
bers of  a  national  association  which  has  a  local 
branch  in  that  city.  Their  laws  provide  that  if 
any  one  of  them,  by  reason  of  a  strike,  is  unable 
to  publish  his  paper,  the  others  shall  make  no 
attempt  to  publish  their  papers.  They  have 
further  agreed  to  limit  the  size  of  their  papers 
to  the  size  of  the  one  in  difficulty.  If  a  union 
shall  cease  work  for  any  cause  in  the  shop  of  one 
of  its  members,  the  association  as  a  whole  will 
refuse  to  employ  any  members  of  that  union. 
Such  a  strike  may  come  during  or  at  the  termina- 
tion of  a  contract  period.  The  contracts  are 
made  with  the  association,  and  provide  that  in 
the  event  of  a  breach  in  any  shop,  the  others  are 
absolved  from  further  observance  of  its  terms. 

This  is  in  effect  a  sympathetic  strike  by  em- 
ployers.    Incidentally  I  will  call  attention  to  the 

[35] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

fact  that  the  sympathetic  strike  by  unions  has 
never  failed  to  bring  forth  strident  denunciation 
as  an  unjustifiable  interference  in  matters  which 
did  not  concern  them.  But  let  that  pass.  Things 
being  as  I  have  described,  in  the  event  of  a  strike 
in  the  shop  of  one  of  those  publishers,  how  about 
the  other  unions  which  have  members  in  that 
shop?  May  they  in  their  turn  refuse  to  work 
because  of  the  strike  or  lockout  which  has  been 
enforced  against  a  sister  union?  Not  at  all,  for 
their  contracts  bind  them  for  a  stated  period, 
and  the  contracts  are  made  without  any  reference 
to  each  other.  The  sympathetic  strike  of  the 
publishers  is  therefore  in  entire  accordance  with  the 
contracts  they  have  made  with  the  various  unions, 
while  the  sympathetic  strike  of  any  of  the  unions 
in  support  of  another  would  constitute  a  breach. 

In  the  following  narrative  it  is  not  intended 
to  discuss  the  merits  of  the  dispute,  but  simply 
to  show  the  advantage  which  this  unity  of  action 
gives  to  the  association  of  employers  so  long  as 
the  respective  unions  engaged  in  the  industry 
manage  their  affairs  without  similar  regard  to 
their  mutual  interests. 

The  pressmen  in  the  office  of  the  Chicago 
American  struck.     This  action  led  to  the  locking 

[36] 


ORGANIZATION  BY  INDUSTRY 

out  of  the  men  in  the  pressrooms  of  all  the  other 
papers.  The  pressmen's  union  appealed  to  the 
other  unions  for  support.  The  stereotypers  and 
delivery  wagon  drivers  immediately  responded. 
The  publishers  claimed  this  to  be  a  breach  of 
contract  on  the  part  of  these  two  organizations, 
and  locked  out  those  of  their  members  employed 
in  the  respective  establishments.  The  composi- 
tors and  mailers,  after  stormy  discussion,  voted  to 
remain  at  work.  (In  passing  it  is  worthy  of 
mention  that  the  compositors  had  walked  out 
from  the  American  the  previous  year;  the  pub- 
lishers had  limited  their  editions  to  the  same  size 
as  the  American  was  able  to  get  out;  none  of  the 
other  unions  struck  with  them,  and  the  matter 
was  adjusted  by  President  Lynch,  of  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union,  who  ordered  the 
men  back,  and  secured  obedience  to  his  order 
through  his  firmness  and  the  support  of  the  union 
in  meeting  assembled.) 

To  continue  the  story.  President  Berry,  of 
the  International  Pressmen's  Union,  sanctioned 
the  strike  in  Chicago,  and  ordered  strikes  on  all 
Hearst  papers  throughout  the  country,  which 
order  was  obeyed  in  some  cities  and  disregarded 
in  others.  President  Freel,  of  the  International 
[37] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

Stereotypers'  Union,  disavowed  the  action  of  the 
stereotypers,  and  eventually  annulled  their  charter 
because  they  would  not  return  to  work.  President 
Lynch,  of  the  International  Typographical  Union, 
was  successful  in  preventing  a  strike  of  composi- 
tors, although  again  he  had  to  combat  an  element 
eager  to  get  into  the  fight. 

Consider  the  situation— pressmen  and  stereo- 
typers calling  the  other  unions  traitors  and  scabs. 
Stereotypers  of  Chicago  thrust  out  of  fellowship 
with  their  comrades  in  the  rest  of  the  country. 
Pressmen  in  several  cities  threatened  with  annul- 
ment of  charters  because  they  had  not  obeyed 
President  Berry's  order  to  strike.  An  element 
among  the  compositors  restive  because  they  had 
not  been  permitted  to  join  the  striking  pressmen 
and  stereotypers.  Dissensions  and  animosities 
that  a  generation  will  scarcely  suflSce  to  heal 
dividing  the  crafts  concerned  from  each  other,  and 
bringing  disruption  among  discordant  elements 
within  themselves.  All  this  while  a  united 
publishers'  association  serenely  faces  the  future. 
Said  I  not  that  the  employers  had  learned  union- 
ism and  had  bettered  the  instruction? 

It  has  been  urged  by  the  publishers  that  the 
pressmen  had  no  right  to  strike  in  the  first  in- 

[38] 


ORGANIZATION  BY  INDUSTRY 

stance,  while  the  union  declares  that  it  was  the 
pubHshers  who  broke  the  agreement.  Whichever 
statement  is  true  has  no  effect  on  my  contention. 
The  other  unions  were  bound  in  any  case  not  to 
strike  during  the  Hfe  of  their  respective  agree- 
ments, and  the  merit  of  a  strike  by  a  sister  union 
would  have  no  valid  effect  upon  the  terms  of  the 
contracts,  because  of  the  manner  in  which  they 
were  made. 

Instances  of  similar  character  might  be  multi- 
plied, but  they  would  mean  simple  iteration, 
and  would  add  nothing  to  the  weight  of  argument. 
This  single  illustration  is  suflBcient  to  prove  an 
intolerable  and  destructive  condition.  On  the 
one  hand,  no  consideration  of  whatever  nature 
should  lead  us  into  repudiation  of  engagements 
entered  into  in  good  faith.  No  matter  what  the 
loss  or  injury,  a  contract  once  made  must  be  lived 
up  to  during  its  term.  If  we  have  made  a  bad 
bargain,  experience  must  teach  us  how  to  make 
better  ones.  Any  temporary  advantage  accruing 
from  broken  contracts  can  never  compensate 
for  the  enduring  benefits  that  flow  from  the 
knowledge  by  the  parties  of  the  other  part  that 
we  are  good  for  any  agreement  we  may  enter  into. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  heartrending  to  see 
[39] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

disruption  and  animosity  separating  those  whose 
every  interest  is  identical;  perhaps  to  see  one 
craft  beaten  down  while  the  others  are  not  only 
prevented  from  aiding  it,  but  must  actually  assist 
the  process  by  remaining  at  work.  Everything 
in  such  a  situation  must  inure  to  the  benefit  of 
employers  so  long  as  it  continues. 

These  are  the  reasons  that  make  it  certain  that 
the  evolution  of  the  trades  union  movement  will 
compel  either  a  close  alliance  or  an  absolute  merger 
of  allied  crafts,  no  matter  what  differences  of 
opinion  may  now  exist  as  to  its  advisability.  A 
close  analogy  to  the  situation  may  be  found  in 
the  condition  of  the  thirteen  original  states  im- 
mediately preceding  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. Like  all  autonomous  bodies,  each  one  was 
reluctant  to  give  up  any  of  the  powers  it  possessed, 
and  the  smaller  states  were  extremely  appre- 
hensive of  the  effects  of  the  legislative  pre- 
ponderance that  would  necessarily  be  given  to  the 
larger.  But  the  desperate  condition  of  internal 
affairs  plus  the  threatening  attitude  of  certain 
European  powers  made  union  a  matter  of  self 
preservation.  For  precisely  similar  reasons  the 
craft  unions  must  surrender  all  or  a  part  of  the 
autonomy  they  have  so  jealously  guarded,  must 
[40J 


ORGANIZATION  BY  INDUSTRY 

discard  their  animosities  and  suspicions,  and  must 
find  a  basis  for  unity  of  action.* 

Syndicalism  is  uncompromising  in  its  advocacy 
of  organization  by  industry,  and  syndicalism  is 
right.  In  this  manner  only  can  the  equilibrium 
between  employers  and  employees  be  restored. 
This  development  is  the  natural  one,  because  it 
is  along  the  line  of  least  resistance;  co-operation 
is  always  along  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

*  Confirming  what  has  just  been  written,  just  before  going  to 
press  I  read  of  the  completion  of  a  national  organization  to  be 
known  as  the  Structural  Alliance,  made  up  of  the  Bridge  and 
Structural  Iron  Workers'  Union,  the  Bricklayers'  Union,  and  the 
Hoisting  Engineers'  Union.  Under  the  constitution  of  the  new 
association  none  of  the  trades  can  strike  without  the  consent  of  the 
others.  The  announcement  was  made  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on 
September  20,  1912. 


[41] 


VI.    ARBITRATION 

What  form  shall  such  industrial  organizations 
take? 

What  tactics  shall  they  adopt? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  are  not  simple. 
Both  the  form  and  the  tactics  of  the  organizations 
will  depend  upon  the  element  that  may  control 
them.  An  industrial  union  in  the  hands  of  the 
I.  W.  W.  will  be  a  very  different  body,  with  very 
different  aims,  from  one  working  along  the  tradi- 
tional lines  of  collective  bargaining.  The  aims 
and  tactics  of  syndicalism  have  been  suflSciently 
explained  in  a  previous  chapter,  and  it  is  self- 
evident  that  the  industrial  group  will  be  a  far 
more  efficient  machine  to  carry  out  those  tactics 
and  accomplish  those  aims  than  the  trade  or- 
ganizations. But  that  fact  should  not  prejudice 
the  opponents  of  syndicalism  against  organization 
by  industry,  for  it  is  equally  self-evident  that  the 
industrial  group  will  be  far  more  efficient  for  the 
purposes  of  collective  bargaining  than  the  trades 
organizations.     A  difference  that  suggests  itself 

[42] 


ARBITRATION 

at  once  is  that  machinery  for  the  adjudication 
of  disputes  is  certain  to  be  a  feature  in  the  event 
of  control  by  what  may  be  called  the  old-line 
trades  unionists,  wliile  it  is  sure  to  be  entirely 
rejected  by  those  who  regard  any  attempt  at 
agreement  with  employers  as  treason  to  the  cause 
of  the  employees,  and  who  do  not  consider  them- 
selves as  bound  when  they  have  entered  into  an 
agreement. 

The  terms  upon  which  craft  unions  should 
amalgamate  are  incapable  of  discussion  in  an 
essay  of  this  kind,  wherein  only  general  principles 
can  be  considered.  Varying  conditions  and  speci- 
fic obstacles  will  no  doubt  be  found  in  every  in- 
dustry; hence  the  arrangement  of  details  must  be 
given  over  to  the  parties  directly  interested.  The 
most  common  cause  of  difference  will  probably 
be  the  weight  to  be  accorded  each  of  the  con- 
stituent unions  in  whatever  central  body  may  be 
created.  Difficult  as  this  question  may  seem,  it 
is  not  an  insuperable  obstacle  if  approached  in  a 
spirit  of  amity  and  mutual  confidence.  And  the 
latter  frame  of  mind  should  be  the  more  easily 
attained  when  it  is  considered  that  it  will  be  im- 
possible for  the  larger  trade  unions  to  oppress 
or    betray    their    weaker    confederates    without 

[43] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

doing  irreparable  injury  to  themselves.  How 
true  this  is  may  well  be  learned  from  the  ex- 
perience of  the  United  States.  States  like  Dela- 
ware, Rhode  Island  and  New  Jersey  were  fearful 
of  the  effects  if  they  intrusted  their  rights  and 
liberties  to  a  congress  in  which  their  representation 
would  be  comparatively  feeble.  But  the  ex- 
perience of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
has  demonstrated  that  their  fears  were  ground- 
less, and  that  the  national  legislature,  whatever 
other  sins  it  may  be  charged  with,  has  never 
shown  any  inclination  to  discriminate  against  the 
smaller  members  of  the  union. 

Another  objection  to  federation  which  is  fre- 
quently urged  by  opponents  is  that  any  one  of  the 
craft  unions,  acting  irresponsibly,  may  precipitate 
a  strike  and  involve  all  the  others,  whether  they 
approve  of  the  strike  or  not.  This  need  not 
necessarily  be  the  case.  To  refer  again  to  our 
national  model:  From  the  moment  that  the  re- 
spective states  became  members  of  the  Union, 
the  national  league  known  as  the  United  States 
alone  possessed  the  sovereign  attribute  of  de- 
claring war.  In  like  manner  the  central  body  of 
the  industrial  union  should  exercise  this  and  all 
other  powers  which  directly  concern  the  welfare 

[44] 


ARBITRATION 

of  the  whole  industry,  each  craft  union  retaining 
jurisdiction  only  over  such  matters  as  are  solely 
related  to  its  own  affairs.  The  amount  of  dues, 
the  amount  and  nature  of  benefits,  questions  of 
internal  organization,  and  so  forth,  would  be 
matters  for  its  own  decision. 

When  the  industrial  union  has  been  formed, 
and  the  character  of  its  control  has  been  made 
manifest,  then  the  spirit  and  manner  in  which 
such  a  union  shall  approach  employers  becomes 
the  next  question  for  consideration.  Should 
that  control  be  revolutionary  in  sentiment,  it 
would  be  needless  to  discuss  this  matter.  No  plan 
for  the  adjustment  of  disputes  is  compatible  with 
the  declared  attitude  of  the  I.  W.  W.,  and  the 
course  of  events  would  be  determined  by  the 
fortunes  of  war. 

But  those  of  us  who  expect  to  obtain  our  just 
share  of  the  blessings  of  life  through  peaceful 
processes,  and  who  will  not  consider  other  methods 
until  those  processes  are  absolutely  exhausted, 
recognize  that  agreements  of  some  kind  are  neces- 
sary, and  that  such  agreements  must  provide 
means  for  the  adjustment  of  disputes.  Several 
methods  are  available,  all  of  which  have  both 
merits    and    defects.       Compulsory    arbitration 

[45] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

through  government  officials  is  one  such  method. 
By  this  means  contending  parties  must  reach  an 
adjustment  of  some  sort.  But  the  function  of 
arbitration  is  not  only  to  make  adjustments,  but 
to  find  such  bases  for  making  them  that  both 
parties  shall  be  satisfied  that  substantial  justice 
has  been  done  between  conflicting  claims.  Offi- 
cial arbitration  has  met  with  bitter  opposition 
from  both  sides  where  it  is  in  vogue;  but  that  is 
not  conclusive  against  it,  for  it  is  well  known  that 
voluntary  arbitration  has  been  assailed  in  the 
same  manner.  No  form  of  arbitrament,  from 
the  trial  by  combat  to  hearings  by  courts,  can 
ever  satisfy  all  parties,  but  the  best  argument 
against  compulsory  arbitration  is  the  psychological 
one  that  men  always  do  with  better  grace  what 
they  are  free  to  do  than  what  they  are  constrained 
to  do. 

I  have  in  mind  two  systems  of  voluntary 
arbitration  which  have  both  well  served  the  pur- 
pose of  preserving  peace,  but  which  may  be 
contrasted  on  account  of  an  essential  difference. 
The  cloak  industry  settles  disputes  through  the 
medium  of  a  joint  board  of  employers  and  em- 
ployees. In  the  event  of  a  failure  to  agree,  three 
persons    not    connected    with    the    industry    are 

[46  1 


ARBITRATION 

added  to  the  joint  board  and  are  given  the  de- 
ciding voice.  The  objection  most  commonly 
heard  against  this  method  of  settlement  of  disputes 
is  that  the  arbiters  drawn  from  outside  the  in- 
dustry are  incompetent  to  decide  many  contro- 
verted matters  because  of  lack  of  technical 
knowledge,  and  that  their  decisions  sometimes 
reflect  that  ignorance  to  an  extent  which  makes 
them  dangerously  unsatisfactory  in  that  they 
create  violent  prejudice  against  the  principle  of 
arbitration. 

Quite  contrary  to  this  is  a  method  which  has 
been  employed  by  the  International  Typographi- 
cal Union  and  the  Newspaper  Publishers  Associa- 
tion of  North  America,  which  provides  for  a  joint 
board  of  equal  numbers  from  both  sides,  this 
board  obliged  to  continue  consideration  until  a 
decision  is  reached.  The  most  common  objection 
to  this  method  is  that  intolerable  delays  are  expe- 
rienced, months  and  sometimes  years  elapsing 
before  an  adjudication  is  agreed  upon.* 

*Since  the  above  was  written  the  system  of  arbitration  between 
these  two  bodies  has  been  greatly  modified.  Local  branches  of 
the  publishers'  association  or  local  unions  may  decline  the  inter- 
national arbitration,  or  may  make  provision  for  local  arbitration. 
Also,  outside  parties  may  be  called  in  if  the  parties  in  interest  cannot 
arrive  at  a  settlement. 

[47] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

A  much  more  complex  system  is  one  used  in 
Germany,  having  been  originated  there  in  the 
printing  industry.  The  plan  has  been  in  opera- 
tion since  1896.  From  a  pamphlet  issued  by  Mr. 
Henry  W.  Cherouny,  of  New  York  City,  himself 
an  employing  printer  who  has  always  evinced  a 
spirit  of  fairness  and  conciliation  toward  his 
employees,  the  following  statement  of  the  form 
of  government  of  the  German  Printers'  League 
is  taken,  the  employers  being  as  much  a  part  of 
the  league  as  the  journeymen: 

"1.  The  Printers'  Congress  consists  of  nine 
employers  and  nine  journeymen,  and  meets  only 
on  particular  occasions  for  the  purposes  of  making 
collective  contracts  and  supervising  the  execution 
of  the  Common  Rule.  The  members  of  the  Con- 
gress are  elected  by  each  of  the  nine  districts  into 
which  the  empire  has  been  divided,  corresponding 
to  our  Congressional  election  districts.  Tenure  of 
office  is  three  years. 

*'2.  The  National  Joint  Commission  wields 
the  executive  power  of  the  League.  It  is  com- 
posed of  three  employers  and  three  employees,  all 
appointed  by  the  Congress. 

"3.  The  District  Joint  Commissions  are  com- 
posed of  the  members  of  the  Congress  living  in 
the  districts  and  of  the  two  chairmen  of  the 
trade  courts  domiciled  in  the  printing  center. 

"4.  The  Trade  Courts  have  jurisdiction  in 
all  difficulties  arising  in  individual  offices  working 
[48] 


ARBITRATION 

under  the  common  scale.  They  consist  of  at  least 
two  or  at  most  five  elected  members  from  each 
part,  and  meet  at  least  twice  a  month.  Eligible 
are  only  union  employers  and  union  journeymen. 
One  employer  and  one  journeyman  preside  and 
appoint  two  secretaries.  The  court  is  competent 
when  two  judges  from  both  camps  are  present. 
Only  an  equal  number  from  both  sides  can  vote; 
if  there  happen  to  be  present  more  members 
from  one  side  than  of  the  other,  the  surplus  mem- 
bers can  act  only  in  an  advisory  capacity.  A 
tie  of  votes  is  equal  to  a  dismissal  of  the  case. 
The  costs  are  borne  by  the  defeated  parties. 
A  dismissed  case  can  go  to  appeal.  There  are 
now  35  trade  courts  in  operation. 

"5.  The  Common  Labor  Bureaus  have  to  take 
care  in  the  first  instance  of  union  men  and  union 
offices,  and  then  of  such  as  are  willing  to  sign 
the  common  scale  and  to  take  the  obligation  in 
writing.  Provision  for  union  men  who  lost  their 
situations  through  loyalty  is  the  first  duty.  The 
bureaus  are  under  control  of  the  Joint  Commis- 
sion. In  case  of  serious  difficulties  the  two  chair- 
men of  the  branch  office  can  stop  the  use  of  the 
labor  bureau  until  settlement  is  reported  in 
writing.  Difficulties  arising  from  the  operations 
of  the  labor  bureau  go  before  the  Joint  Commis- 
sion, whose  decision  is  final.  The  expenses  are 
borne  by  both  parties  to  the  common  scale.  Union 
men  and  union  offices  are  served  without  expense. 
There  are  46  Printers'  Labor  Bureaus  in  operation. 

"6.  The  Common  Trade  Schools.  Apprentices 
are  obliged  to  attend  school  three  years,  and  are 

[49] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

at  liberty  to  take  a  fourth  year's  course,  which  is 
free  to  all,  and  which  is  a  kind  of  high  school  in 
the  art  of  printing." 

The  result  of  the  workings  of  this  agreement  is 
that  90  per  cent,  of  the  printing  offices  of  the 
empire  are  union  shops. 

By  the  year  1905  the  graphic,  metal,  wood, 
building,  clothing,  textile,  transportation  and 
food  industries  of  Germany  were  organized  more 
or  less  upon  this  model. 

But  I  am  not  advocating  any  particular  plan 
to  the  exclusion  of  any  other.  The  one  point  of 
insistence  is  that  a  reasonable  basis  for  main- 
taining ordinary  intercourse  must  be  found, 
nothing  doubting  that  we  shall  progress  faster 
and  better  on  that  line  than  by  arousing  pluto- 
cratic dogs  of  war,  who,  when  they  once  taste 
blood,  have  always  as  raging  a  thirst  for  more  as 
any  "direct  actionist"  who  ever  expected  to  estab- 
Hsh  social  justice  with  bomb  and  torch. 


[50] 


VII.    THE  STRIKE 

In  the  days  that  have  been  strikes  were  gener- 
ally of  hmited  local  extent.  A  single  trade  in  a 
shop,  or  at  most,  a  trade  in  the  shops  of  a  single 
town  or  city,  were  involved.  The  disturbance 
created  hardly  a  ripple  beyond  the  circle  of  those 
directly  concerned,  and  the  claim  is  true,  as 
made  by  the  men  whose  faces  are  turned  to  the 
past,  that  the  percentage  of  successful  strikes 
(i.e.,  strikes  which  in  whole  or  in  part  brought 
to  the  unions  the  specific  gain  they  were  striking 
for)  was  suflBciently  large  to  justify  the  dependence 
placed  on  it  as  the  principal  weapon  of  unionism. 

But  other  times,  other  conditions.  There 
has  been  a  distinct  decrease  in  the  efficiency  of 
strikes  entered  upon  by  unions  of  employees 
because  unions  of  employers  are  now  more 
powerful  and  better  equipped.  In  some  industries 
concentration  has  reached  the  point  where  the 
opportunity  to  find  employment  is  confined  to 
the  service  of  a  very  few  corporations.  The 
effect  of  these  circumstances  is  twofold:  It  makes 

[51] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

the  chances  of  striking  employees  far  more 
dubious,  and  it  tremendously  widens  the  field 
which  may  be  affected  by  any  strike,  until  at 
present  strikes  of  national  and  even  international 
extent  are  comparatively  frequent.  Conversely, 
the  sufferings  and  miseries  caused  by  strikes,  to 
those  directly  engaged  and  to  those  who  are 
involved  without  voluntary  action,  are  enormously 
increased. 

These  concurrent  tendencies — concentration  of 
ownership  or  close  affiliation  on  the  part  of  em- 
ployers, with  organization  by  industry  on  the 
part  of  employees — must  continuously  operate 
to  make  strikes  and  lockouts  more  and  more 
terrible  industrial  convulsions.  The  forces  aligned 
against  each  other  will  be  titanic,  and  the  injuries 
the  contending  parties  will  be  able  mutually  to 
inflict  will  be  proportionate  to  the  magnitude 
of  their  organizations.  Like  wars  between  na- 
tions, industrial  conflicts  will  become  tremendous 
and  destructive  to  a  degree  hitherto  inconceivable. 

Can  the  strike  be  discarded .^^  No!  And  prep- 
arations to  use  the  strike  as  a  last  resource  are 
dictated  by  the  commonest  prudence.  Referring 
again  to  the  conduct  and  methods  of  the  nations, 
we  see  that  while  they  make  arbitration  treaties  and 

[52] 


THE  STRIKE 

establish  arbitral  courts,  yet  prudence  leads  them 
to  prepare  for  the  contingency  of  war.  In  like 
manner  we  must  be  in  a  position  to  strike  effective- 
ly if  need  be,  while  neglecting  no  means  to  avoid 
the  necessity.  Also,  although  this  essay  is  ad- 
dressed to  organized  labor,  in  this  chapter  it  is 
permissible  to  say  a  word  to  organized  capital.  In 
both  camps  may  be  found  men  of  similar  tempera- 
ment, whose  impulse  it  is  to  seek  nothing  else  and 
nothing  less  than  the  utter  annihilation  of  the 
other,  and  to  seek  it  by  the  application  of  what 
each  believes  they  possess — the  power  of  superior 
force.  The  violence  of  one  is  matched  by  the 
cold-blooded  brutality  of  the  other,  with  better 
excuse  for  the  syndicalists  urged  by  need  than  for 
their  prototypes  urged  by  greed.  Those  of  us  on 
either  side  who  know  that  we  must  live  with 
each  other,  and  who  are  willing  to  permit  the  slow 
and  peaceful  course  of  evolution  to  shape  the 
final  form  which  industry  shall  assume,  are  bound 
to  strive  against  both. 

The  strike  must  then  be  regarded  as  our  last 
dread  resource,  prepared  for  with  all  the  foresight 
at  our  command.  Precisely  in  proportion  to  the 
self-restraint  we  exercise  in  its  use,  and  to  the 
provident  care  with  which  we  make  ready  for 

[53] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

the  hour  in  which  there  may  be  no  alternative, 
will  it  be  efiFective  when  we  do  have  recourse  to  it. 
By  toil  and  sacrifice  our  predecessors  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  unionism  of  to-day,  and  toil 
and  sacrifice  must  we  be  prepared  to  give  when- 
ever the  occasion  demands  it.  But  as  solemnly 
as  it  is  in  the  power  of  language  to  do  so,  I  would 
adjure  those  whose  province  it  is  to  order  or 
advise  the  strike  to  feel  the  responsibility  for  their 
counsel  or  command.  Let  every  arrow  of  priva- 
tion or  misery  that  may  be  entailed  touch  them 
in  imagination  before  it  touches  their  followers 
in  reality.  Finally,  let  our  attitude  be  that  ad- 
vised by  Polonius: 

"Beware 
Of  entrance  to  a  quarrel,  but  being  in. 
Bear  it  that  the  opposed  may  beware  of  thee." 


[54] 


VIII.    INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

Any  proposed  extension  of  the  traditional 
activities  of  trades  unions  invariably  meets  with 
determined  opposition.  A  large  and  influential 
element  persists  in  regarding  the  function  of  the 
union  as  confined  solely  to  the  matters  of  wage 
scales,  hours  of  labor  and  shop  conditions.  They 
rely  upon  the  theory  that  concentration  of  effort 
in  these  directions  brings  the  only  results  worth 
striving  for,  while  the  inclusion  of  mutual  benefit 
features  means  diffusion  of  energy  and  loss  of 
effectiveness.  These  votaries  of  the  "good  old 
ways"  never  abandon  this  position  concerning 
any  proposition  until  dislodged  by  the  unanswer- 
able logic  of  events,  and  then  retreat  only  to  throw 
up  similar  breastworks  at  the  next  turn  in  the 
road,  from  behind  which  they  will  make  just  as 
stubborn  resistance  to  the  next  innovation. 

The  concrete  propositions  upon  which  issue  is 
joined  relate  to  insurance  against  sickness,  old 
age  and  death.  Unemployment  might  also  be 
considered,  but  there  are  arguments  against  that 

[55] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

form  of  insurance  that  cannot  be  urged  against 
the  other  three;  so  in  order  to  prevent  confusion 
it  may  be  considered  by  itself. 

In  limited  degree  various  unions  have  created 
provision  for  the  protection  of  their  membership 
against  the  consequences  of  one  or  more  of  these 
inevitable  afflictions;  but  speaking  generally, 
unionism  has  hitherto  been  reluctant  to  enter 
upon  these  j&elds.  The  favorite  argument  that 
fraternal  orders  and  insurance  companies  can 
best  look  after  that  business,  while  we  have  enough 
to  do  to  take  care  of  strictly  union  business, 
seems  conclusive  to  many;  while  probably  a 
larger  number  are  easily  aroused  by  the  conten- 
tion that  personal  liberty  is  invaded;  that  the 
kind  and  amount  of  insurance  they  shall  carry 
is  a  matter  of  personal  concern,  and  that  if  they 
have  enough  already  or  do  not  want  any  at  all, 
it  is  not  the  province  of  any  organization  to 
compel  them  to  purchase  a  protection  of  which 
they  do  not  feel  the  need. 

The  answers  to  both  these  arguments  are  plain 
and  convincing.  Benefit  insurance  is  a  business- 
like proposition  for  trades  unions,  feasible  as  to 
cost  and  of  incalculable  value  for  organization 
purposes,  and  it  is  not  an  invasion  of  individual 

[5Q] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

rights.  Those  who  find  themselves  aggrieved 
on  this  latter  account  would  do  well  to  remember 
that  every  association  of  human  beings  for  mutual 
benefit  is  only  possible  by  the  surrender  of  some 
part  of  their  individual  freedom  of  action.  The 
political  community  is  based  upon  that  principle, 
and  voluntary  associations  of  every  character 
must  of  necessity  conform  to  it.  If.  the  general 
welfare  in  the  case  under  discussion  is  best  served 
by  the  adoption  of  insurance  features,  then  the 
enforcement  upon  all  members  of  laws  to  that 
end  is  no  more  an  invasion  of  individual  right 
than  the  enforcement  of  an  order  to  strike,  or 
of  an  assessment  to  maintain  others  on  strike. 
The  individual  may  disapprove  of  the  strike  or 
the  assessment,  but  he  submits  because  he  knows 
that  his  best  interest  requires  the  existence  of 
an  association  with  power  to  order  and  maintain 
such  measures,  even  though  he  may  upon  some 
occasions  disagree  with  the  exercise  of  that  power. 
It  follows,  then,  that  the  man  who  willingly 
surrenders  some  individual  freedom  of  action 
when  he  joins  a  union,  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
the  much  greater  advantages  that  attend  con- 
certed action,  should  regard  this  question  of  in- 
surance in  the  same  light  as  he  does  other  things 

[57] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

that  the  union  takes  under  its  jurisdiction,  and 
should  not  consider  it  an  invasion  of  his  personal 
rights  if  it  is  shown  that  such  features  tend  to  the 
upbuilding  of  the  organization  and  to  the  con- 
sequent advantage  of  every  individual  in  it. 

To  the  man  who  honestly  thinks  he  is  carrying 
the  limit  of  insurance,  it  msiy  be  pointed  out  that 
the  sum  usually  carried  is  pitifully  small  (speak- 
ing now  of  mortuary  insurance)  and  the  addition 
of  even  a  few  hundreds  may  be  of  extraordinary 
importance.  A  $1,000  policy  only  capitalizes  a 
year's  earnings  of  the  average  mechanic,  and  I 
venture  to  assert  that  comparatively  few  have 
so  much  as  $2,000;  several  hundred  dollars  to  the 
family  in  the  time  of  stress  are  much  more  useful 
than  the  pennies  paid  for  them  while  the  head  of 
the  family  is  in  health  and  working.  As  for 
sick  benefits,  the  stricken  workman  needs  more 
money  when  he  is  sick  than  when  he  is  well, 
and  a  wise  man  would  never  think  he  had  too 
much  until  he  had  provided  an  insurance  equal 
to  his  usual  earnings,  and  not  one  in  ten 
thousand  does  that. 

It  remains  to  prove  that  insurance  protection 
against  these  common  exigencies  of  life  can  be 
furnished  by  a  union  at  a  cost  which  makes  them 

[58] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

good  business  propositions  and  at  the  same  time 
essential  to  organization  work.  It  is  common 
knowledge  that  many  workingmen  are  notoriously 
improvident  in  these  matters,  and  this  not  because 
they  do  not  earn  enough  to  devote  some  part  of 
their  incomes  to  such  purposes,  but  because  they 
seem  actually  to  begrudge  money  so  spent  if 
there  is  no  immediate  return.  There  are  also 
unfortunately  many  whose  earnings  are  so  small 
that  they  feel  unable  to  spare  any  part  of  them 
for  purposes  not  immediately  necessary.  These 
two  classes  furnish  the  numerous  cases  of  want 
and  misery  which  union  men  are  continually 
called  upon  to  relieve  by  voluntary  subscriptions. 
Thus  the  generous  fraction  of  the  membership 
assumes  a  burden  which  should  of  right  be  carried 
by  the  whole,  and  those  who  need  relief  must  ask 
from  the  charity  of  their  fellows  that  which 
would  foster  self-respect  if  received  as  a  right. 
Those  whose  careless  improvidence  exposes  them 
to  the  full  force  of  the  blasts  of  misfortune  are 
temperamentally  just  as  indifferent  to  the  expendi- 
ture when  under  the  laws  of  their  union  they  are 
accustomed  to  paying  the  cost  of  protection  as  a 
fixed  charge  included  in  dues.  Those  whose 
limited  earnings  are  responsible  for  the  lack  of 

[59] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

prudent  provision  may  be  protected  at  nominal 
cost  if  the  insurance  fund  is  collected  upon  the 
basis  of  a  percentage  of  earnings  rather  than  at  a 
flat  rate.  Considerations  of  brevity  make  it  in- 
expedient to  take  the  many  sides  of  these  collateral 
questions  and  argue  them  all  out  in  detail,  but  I 
cannot  forbear  saying  that  the  percentage  plan 
is  the  only  truly  fraternal  plan,  and  for  that 
reason  best  for  organizing  purposes.  The  man 
who  earns  most  should  pay  most.  Objectors 
will  not  fail  to  point  to  this  as  an  injustice.  In 
reality,  it  is  the  truest  justice.  If  this  method 
of  taxation  is  not  employed,  the  aged,  the  infirm, 
the  unemployed  might  find  the  assessment  a  real 
burden,  and  not  only  their  insurance,  but  their 
membership  would  be  imperiled  by  inability  to 
pay  it.  At  the  same  time  the  member  earning 
good  wages  is  scarcely  conscious  that  he  is  paying 
an  assessment.  Also,  the  man  in  receipt  of  a 
good  scale  or  more  must  remember  two  things  in 
this  connection:  One  is  that  his  scale  depends  in 
large  measure  upon  the  loyalty  of  the  less  fortu- 
nate; the  other  is  that  he  does  not  know  when  he 
will  be  one  of  the  less  fortunate  himself.  The  per- 
centage plan  is  a  practical  application  of  the  doc- 
trine, "Each  for  all  and  all  for  each."     If  a  man 

[60] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

buys  insurance  from  a  company  or  a  fraternal 
order,  and  for  any  reason,  after  any  period  of 
time,  is  unable  to  maintain  his  payments,  his 
policy  lapses.  The  union  man,  if  the  system  of 
percentage  on  earnings  is  adopted,  obviously  pays 
no  assessments  when  he  is  not  earning  anything, 
although  his  right  to  benefits  is  not  in  any  degree 
curtailed  by  that  circumstance.  The  value  of  this 
method  as  an  organizing  argument  is  self-evident. 
Let  us  now  consider  the  question  of  cost: 
Enough  experience  has  been  gained  in  the  pro- 
vision of  various  insurances  to  show  that  the 
unions  are  able  to  fulfil  their  obligations  at  a  cost 
which  compares  favorably  with  that  charged 
for  equivalent  service  by  insurance  companies 
and  fraternal  orders.  The  Cigarmakers'  Inter- 
national Union  is  by  odds  the  most  progressive 
body  in  this  respect  among  unions,  both  in  the 
variety  of  benefits  and  the  amounts  paid.  In 
the  comparisons  here  made  it  must  be  remembered 
that  cigarmaking  is  not  regarded  as  a  healthy 
trade,  and  the  International  Cigarmakers'  Union 
cannot  select  its  risks  for  obvious  reasons;  yet  it 
will  be  seen  that  they  maintain  benefits  at  a  cost 
lower  than  organizations  whose  particular  business 
it  is.     That  union  has  been  in  this  business  of 

[61] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

insurance  for  thirty-two  years,  and  its  results 
are  worthy  of  respect.  It  pays  sick  benefits  of 
$5.00  per  week  for  thirteen  weeks  in  any  year; 
the  highest  cost  per  member  in  any  year  has  been 
$4.13.  Compare  that  with  the  Odd  Fellows, 
Knights  of  Pythias  and  other  societies.  They 
usually  pay  $5.00  a  week  for  thirteen  weeks  and 
half  benefits  for  thirteen  more,  the  dues  almost 
invariably  being  $8.00  per  year.  Need  the  union 
fear  this  comparison? 

Take  now  the  death  and  total  disability  benefit. 
A  graduated  benefit  is  paid,  with  a  maximum  of 
$550  for  fifteen  years'  membership.  The  high- 
est cost  per  member  in  any  year  was  $5.03, 
but  the  average  cost  was  much  less.  The  New 
York  Life  Insurance  Company  charges  $19.62 
per  $1,000  ordinary  life  at  age  21,  which  would  be 
$9.80  for  $550.  While  it  is  true  that  the  union 
does  not  pay  $550  until  membership  has  continued 
fifteen  years,  it  is  also  true  that  most  men  do  not 
seek  insurance  at  age  21,  and  the  comparison  in 
favor  of  the  union  would  be  greater  the  longer 
the  taking  of  a  policy  is  delayed. 

The  International  Typographical  Union  on 
April  1,  1912,  instituted  a  graduated  mortuary 
benefit,  with  a  maximum  of  $400  for  five  years' 

[62] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

membership.  The  cost  per  member  is  one-half  of 
one  per  cent,  on  earnings,  which  averages  a  httle 
less  than  $5.00  per  member,  and  judging  by  mor- 
tahty  tables  of  the  union  for  twenty  years,  this 
assessment  will  be  sufficient  to  meet  all  obligations. 
The  New  York  Life  rate  of  $19.62  at  age  21  would 
mean  a  rate  of  $7.85  for  $400;  and  thus  again 
the  union  need  not  fear  comparison. 

Reasons  why  the  cost  of  this  insurance  is  so 
comparatively  cheap  were  made  manifest  when 
the  mortuary  benefit  was  established  by  the 
International  Typographical  Union.  With  the 
exception  of  hiring  a  few  additional  clerks  at 
international  headquarters,  the  existing  adminis- 
trative machinery  of  the  union  was  ample  for 
taking  care  of  the  additional  business.  No  addi- 
tional salaries  were  paid  on  its  account  (except 
the  few  clerks  already  mentioned),  no  addi- 
tional rent  was  incurred,  no  commissions  were 
paid,  in  short,  expenses  of  administration  were 
practically  nil.  Another  is  that  the  rates  of  life 
insurance  companies  are  based  on  the  American 
Mortality  Table,  while  it  is  acknowledged  that 
for  many  years  past  their  experience  has  been 
better  than  that  indicated  by  the  table.  These 
facts   go    far   toward    explaining   how   rates    so 

[63] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

greatly  in  favor  of  the  unions  may  be  well  within 
the  margin  of  safety. 

The  Cigarmakers'  International  Union  has 
also  an  unemployment  benefit  of  $3.00  per  week. 
This  has  been  paid  for  twenty-two  years,  and  the 
average  cost  per  year  per  member  has  been 
$2,003.  The  cost  fluctuates  widely,  according 
to  the  state  of  trade.  The  highest  cost  was 
$6,434  (1896)  and  the  lowest  per  member  per 
year  was  $0.39i^  (1903).  Of  course,  this  cost 
cannot  be  compared  with  any  insurance  sold 
elsewhere,  because  an  unemployment  benefit  is 
purely  for  organizing  work. 

I  have  cited  these  few  facts  to  prove  that  trades 
union  insurance  is  a  sound  business  proposition, 
regardless  of  its  value  in  securing  and  retaining 
members.  But  my  contention  is  that  even  if 
such  insurance  were  actually  more  costly  than  if 
purchased  elsewhere,  the  contingent  advantages 
are  so  great  that  it  should  nevertheless  be  a  part 
of  the  activity  of  every  union.  I  have  been 
assured  by  responsible  oflBcers  of  the  International 
Cigarmakers'  Union  that  the  sick  and  death 
benefits  they  pay  have  been  of  inestimable  value 
in  holding  their  membership  in  the  face  of  adverse 
circumstances  that  might  otherwise  have  caused 

[64] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

disruption.  It  must  be  obvious  that  every 
additional  benefit  contingent  upon  membership 
in  a  union  is  an  additional  tie  to  be  broken  before 
a  man  can  bring  himself  to  the  point  where  he  is 
willing  to  throw  away  all  that  membership  means. 

It  will  be  urged  that  the  cost  of  these  benefits 
may  frighten  prospective  members.  But  there 
is  no  substantial  basis  for  alarm  on  this  account, 
because  persons  seek  membership  in  a  union  for 
industrial  reasons,  and  the  man  who  needs  the 
protection  of  a  union  will  seek  it;  also  because 
new  members  get  a  valid  return  for  their  money, 
and  the  arguments  that  appeal  to  the  present 
membership  of  a  union  for  the  adoption  of  these 
forms  of  mutual  assistance  would  be  equally 
convincing  to  the  man  about  to  join. 

A  complete  system  of  benefits  should  include 
provision  for  aged  and  incapacitated  members. 
All  that  has  been  urged  heretofore  is  applicable 
to  old  age  pensions,  but  that  branch  of  the  subject 
requires  special  consideration  because  there  are 
circumstances  surrounding  it  which  will  soon 
make  it  a  burning  question  for  organized  labor, 
while  sick  benefits  and  mortuary  insurance  remain 
more  or  less  subjects  for  academic  discussion. 

Every  man  who  is  reasonably  well  informed  will 
[Q5] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

know  that  in  Europe  the  protection  of  the  super- 
annuated workman  against  absolute  indigence 
has  been  viewed  as  a  question  of  national  concern, 
has  been  oflScially  studied,  and  is  now  one  of  the 
functions  of  government.  With  Germany  and 
Great  Britain  leading,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  all  Europe  will  follow  in  this  disposition  of  a 
vital  matter.  The  arguments  pro  and  con  which 
may  be  offered  in  relation  to  this  system  of  govern- 
ment supervision  of  old  age  insurance  may  be 
omitted  here,  for  there  is  no  present  probability 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  or  of 
any  state  will  accept  the  view  that  the  care  of  the 
superannuated  workman  is  a  duty  of  society  and 
a  proper  exercise  of  governmental  functions. 

Not  only  is  there  no  present  likelihood  of  the 
adoption  of  the  European  solution  of  this  problem 
in  the  United  States  but  there  are  indications 
that  one  of  two  solutions  may  be  evolved  in  this 
country,  either  of  which,  if  it  becomes  general, 
will  practically  preclude  governmental  assumption 
of  what  is  so  clearly  a  social  necessity  that  some 
way  of  providing  for  it  must  be  iound. 

In  Germany,  Great  Britain  and  France  the 
necessary  fund  for  old  age  pensions  is  obtained 
by    contributions    from    the    Government,    the 

[66] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

employer  and  the  employed.  The  collection  from 
each  party  is  compulsory  and  the  fund  is  at  all 
times  under  official  control.  The  workman's 
right  to  change  his  employment  is  not  in  any  way 
interfered  with,  as  the  payment  of  his  pension 
is  in  no  sense  dependent  upon  his  continuance 
in  any  particular  employ.  The  pension  is  a 
right  secured  to  him  by  law,  and  not  a  gratuity 
given  by  an  employer.  The  employer's  power  to 
discharge  and  the  employee's  right  to  leave  are 
both  unimpaired. 

In  this  country  there  is  coming  into  vogue  a 
system  of  old  age  pensions  by  which  this  vital 
principle  is  weakened  and  may  be  destroyed. 
Large  corporations,  dominating  highly  centralized 
industries,  have  formulated  pension  systems  to  be 
maintained  entirely  at  their  own  cost,  but  which, 
as  a  more  than  compensating  advantage,  are 
held  entirely  under  their  arbitrary  control.  The 
employees  of  these  corporations  can  only  become 
beneficiaries  of  such  pension  funds  if  they  remain 
in  their  positions  continuously  until  the  age  of 
retirement  is  reached.  Therefore,  to  the  extent 
that  the  prospect  of  a  pension  is  permitted  to 
influence  their  action,  they  have  surrendered 
their  industrial  freedom.     But  while  this  unbroken 

[67] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

period  of  service  is  demanded  as  a  condition 
precedent  to  the  grant  of  a  pension,  it  does  not 
confer  the  right  to  one.  The  employee  desiring 
a  pension  may  not  quit  his  employment  under 
any  circumstances,  but  the  employer  retains 
the  right  to  discharge  him  at  any  time  and  for 
any  reason,  and  is  not  bound  either  to  give  him  a 
pension  when  the  age  of  retirement  is  reached  or 
to  continue  it  if  given. 

The  pension  plan  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  which  became  effective  January  1, 
1911,  may  be  regarded  as  the  pattern  upon  which 
such  systems  will  be  modeled.  The  fund  is  to  be 
administered  by  a  board  of  trustees,  upon  which 
the  employees  are  not  given  representation,  and 
in  the  selection  of  the  members  of  which  they  have 
no  voice.  The  regulations  are  drawn  with  great 
care  to  prevent  an  employee  from  establishing 
either  a  right  to  a  job  or  a  right  to  a  pension. 
That  these  objects  have  been  thoroughly  ac- 
complished is  evident  from  the  following  pro- 
visions : 

Article  22:  "Pensions  may  be  withheld  or 
terminated  in  case  of  misconduct  on  the  part  of 
the  beneficiaries  or  for  other  cause  sufficient 
in  the  judgment  of  the  board  of  trustees  to  war- 
rant such  action." 

[68] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

Article  24:  "The  pension  plan  is  a  purely 
voluntary  provision  for  the  benefit  of  employees 
superannuated  or  totally  incapacitated  after  long 
and  faithful  service  and  constitutes  no  contract 
and  confers  no  legal  rights  upon  any  employee." 

Article  26:  "Neither  the  creation  of  this  fund 
nor  any  other  action  at  any  time  taken  by  any 
corporation  included  under  the  provisions  of  the 
fund,  or  by  the  board  of  trustees,  shall  give  to 
any  employee  the  right  to  be  retained  in  the 
service,  and  all  employees  remain  subject  to  dis- 
charge to  the  same  extent  as  if  this  pension  fund 
had  never  been  created." 

The  pension  plan  of  the  International  Harvester 
Company  provides: 

Article  14:  "Neither  the  establishment  of  this 
system  nor  the  granting  of  a  pension  nor  any  other 
action  now  or  hereafter  taken  by  the  pension 
board  or  by  the  officers  of  the  company  shall  be 
held  or  construed  as  creating  a  contract  or  giving 
to  any  officer,  agent  or  employee  the  right  to  be 
retained  in  the  service  or  any  right  to  any  pension 
allowance,  and  the  company  expressly  reserves, 
unaffected  hereby,  its  right  to  discharge  without 
liability,  other  than  for  salary  or  wages  due  and 
unpaid,  any  employee,  whenever  the  interests 
of  the  company  may  in  its  judgment  so  require." 

The  corporations  creating  these  pension  systems 
are   not   actuated   by   altruistic   motives.     Their 
object  is  to  buy  something,  and  that  something 
[69] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

is  a  quality  they  are  pleased  to  call  "loyalty.** 
Whether  provisions  like  the  above  are  calculated 
to  foster  true  loyalty  is  more  than  doubtful,  but 
the  real  purpose  of  the  fund  is  not  doubtful. 
The  pension  offered  is  expected  to  be  an  insurance 
against  strikes,  and  the  expense  of  the  system  is 
but  the  premium  paid  for  that  insurance.  It  is 
no  secret  that  the  Steel  Corporation  has  left 
nothing  undone  in  furtherance  of  its  purpose 
to  completely  eliminate  organization  among  its 
employees,  and  its  pension  system  is  but  one  means 
to  that  end.  How  successful  it  will  be  from  the 
corporation's  viewpoint  it  is  yet  too  soon  to  say, 
but  it  is  not  an  evidence  of  wisdom  on  our  part 
to  underestimate  its  possible  influence.  A  young 
man,  free  from  family  responsibilities,  to  whom 
the  idea  of  diminished  eflBciency  by  reason  of 
advancing  years  seems  as  remote  as  eternity, 
may  give  little  heed  to  the  loss  of  a  pension  from 
the  enjoyment  of  which  he  is  separated  by  an 
intervening  lifetime;  but  it  is  quite  another 
matter  with  the  man  upon  whose  head  the  snow 
blossoms  are  beginning  to  appear,  and  who  may 
have  to  his  credit  a  considerable  period  of  service. 
He  may  hesitate  long  before  casting  away  this 
provision,  even  with  the  uncertainties  that  hedge 

[70] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

it  about,  and  this  hesitation  may  be  further 
emphasized  by  the  difficulty  he  is  Hkely  to  ex- 
perience in  finding  new  employment  in  competi- 
tion with  the  younger  men.  To  such  a  man  the 
necessity  for  a  pension  is  no  longer  remote,  and 
the  influence  of  the  one  so  offered  may  prove  at 
some  crucial  moment  to  be  decisive. 

Many  large  corporations  have  already  adopted 
systems  similar  to  the  one  outlined.  Many  more 
will  probably  do  so.  Let  us  ask  ourselves  very 
seriously  if  the  general  adoption  of  this  system  of 
pensions  would  not  be  a  solution  of  the  problem 
which  is  full  of  menace  to  our  organizations.  If 
it  is  to  the  advantage  of  employers  to  offer  a 
provisional  pension,  surrounded  by  a  dozen 
qualifying  ifs  and  buts,  would  it  not  be  to  the 
advantage  of  trades  unions  to  offer  a  pension  on  a 
straightforward  basis,  absolutely  secured  to  the 
union  man  as  a  right,  on  the  sole  condition  of 
continuous  membership  for  a  term  of  years.?  If 
*' union  busters"  regard  such  a  proposition  as 
good  business  for  themselves,  why  should  not  a 
far  better  proposition  be  good  business  for  us? 

Any  pension  which  is  contingent  upon  the 
continued  service  of  the  workman  in  a  particular 
employment  is  an  injustice  to  the  workman  and 

[71] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

a  danger  to  the  organization.  The  way  to  meet 
that  danger  and  to  overcome  that  injustice  is  to 
create  a  pension  system  in  every  union,  and  to 
that  extent  protect  the  industrial  hberty  of 
those  who  are  or  who  may  become  members.  If 
this  argument  is  well  taken,  it  would  seem  that 
pensions  must  in  self-defense  be  made  a  part  of 
the  organization  work  of  trades  unions. 

The  report  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
for  1911  (p.  90),  gives  a  table  purporting  to  show 
what  benefits  are  paid  by  aflSliated  unions.  This 
table  makes  no  mention  of  old  age  pensions, 
leading  to  the  inference  that  none  are  paid.  But 
the  table  is  incomplete  at  least  in  this  regard, 
that  the  International  Typographical  Union  has 
maintained  a  pension  fund  since  March,  1908. 
The  Amalgamated  Society  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners  and  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engi- 
neers, both  English  organizations  with  branches 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  also  pay  old  age 
pensions.  Apart  from  these  I  know  of  none. 
An  assessment  of  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  on 
all  earnings  of  members  of  the  International 
Typographical  Union  enables  the  payment  of 
$5.00  per  week  to  incapacitated  members.  The 
fund  has  shown  a  surplus  of  receipts  over  ex- 

[  72  ] 


INSURANCE   BENEFITS 

penditures  in  each  year  since  its  establishment, 
and  the  report  of  the  Secretary-Treasurer  to  the 
convention  of  1912  shows  a  balance  in  hand  of 
$522,886.39.  But  this  large  accumulation  is  a  re- 
serve against  that  time  when  we  may  reasonably 
expect  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of  pensioners 
through  the  action  of  natural  causes.  Thus,  an 
average  of  $4.96  a  year  secures  to  each  member 
an  annuity  of  $260  a  year,  in  case  of  necessity, 
with  no  obligation  for  the  payment  of  assessments 
if  for  any  reason  earnings  are  cut  off.  And  the 
dividend  in  the  shape  of  greater  fraternalism 
cannot  be  calculated. 

Insurance  against  unemployment  would  seem 
to  be  as  necessary  as  any  other  of  the  benefits  dis- 
cussed. But  there  seem  to  be  greater  difficulties 
in  the  equitable  distribution  of  a  fund  for  this 
purpose  than  arise  in  the  handling  of  the  others. 
The  stumbling  block  is  invariably  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  some  men  become  parasites,  being 
disinclined  to  work  in  any  case,  and  making  no 
pretense  at  all  of  seeking  employment  when  they 
are  assured  even  so  small  an  allowance  as  an 
out-of-work  fund  can  afford.  My  own  local 
union  has  had  considerable  experience  in  the  main- 
tenance of  such  a  fund,  and  that  experience  was  in 

[73] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

great  measure  discouraging.  We  found  that  a 
number  of  men  drew  in  each  year  the  full  amount 
that  was  permitted  under  the  laws  regulating  the 
fund,  and  that  these  men  could  best  be  described 
as  "panhandlers."  The  abuse  in  our  case  event- 
ually became  so  flagrant  that  the  fund  was 
abolished,  upon  the  report  of  an  investigating 
committee  to  the  effect  that  the  majority  of  bene- 
ficiaries belonged  to  this  dissolute  class.  Never- 
theless, it  is  the  fact  that  unemployment  insurance 
is  and  long  has  been  maintained  by  European 
unions,  and  in  this  country  the  Cigarmakers' 
International  Union  has  conducted  such  an  in- 
surance for  twenty-two  years,  and  such  comment 
as  has  reached  me  does  not  indicate  so  scandalous 
a  condition  as  compelled  its  abandonment  by 
Typographical  Union  No.  6.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  in  this  particular  form  of  insurance 
the  problem  is  complicated  by  the  considerations 
presented,  and  it  is  difficult  to  do  justice  by 
worthy  members  without  doing  injustice  to  those 
who  bear  the  burden;  nevertheless,  the  difficulty 
is  not  insuperable,  and  certainly  careful  regulation 
would  reduce  abuses  to  a  minimum. 

But,  omitting  unemployment  insurance  from  the 
list,  I  am  firm  in  the  conviction  that  the  chain  of 
[74] 


INSURANCE  BENEFITS 

benefits,  each  of  which  tends  in  some  degree  to 
make  a  union  card  a  more  valuable  possession, 
will,  if  taken  together,  exercise  a  cumulative 
influence  which  it  would  be  diflScult  to  over- 
estimate. And  under  this  head,  as  under  every 
other  in  the  constructive  plan  presented,  the 
central  idea  is  mutual  assistance  and  co-operation. 
In  this  activity,  as  in  all  the  rest,  co-operation  is 
the  line  of  least  resistance. 


[75] 


IX.    THE  APPRENTICE 

It  is  a  frequent  contention  of  organized  labor 
that  the  best  workmen  are  to  be  found  within  its 
ranks.  The  contention  has  much  support  in  fact, 
for  it  would  otherwise  be  manifestly  impossible 
for  organized  labor  to  command  any  recognition 
whatever.  But  if  it  is  a  source  of  the  strength  of 
unionism  that  it  holds  the  allegiance  of  the  ma- 
jority of  good  workmen,  it  is  no  less  a  source  of 
weakness  that  it  embraces  so  many  mediocre 
and  poor  ones.  There  can  be  no  disagreement 
with  the  statement  that  if  the  standard  of  work- 
manship for  the  general  average  of  union  work- 
men was  considerably  raised,  the  potency  of 
unionism  would  be  greatly  increased. 

The  employer  who  agrees  to  employ  none  but 
union  workmen  has  a  valid  grievance  if  he  finds 
any  considerable  percentage  of  his  workmen  more 
or  less  incompetent.  The  ready  reply  that  he  can 
discharge  them  neither  meets  his  grievance  nor 
adds  to  the  desirability  of  a  contract  with  the 
union.     On  the  contrary,  to  the  extent  that  he 

[76] 


THE  APPRENTICE 

has  cause  for  complaint  on  this  ground  the  con- 
tract is  distinctly  depreciated. 

Under  conceivable  circumstances  he  cannot 
discharge  them,  or  can  do  so  only  at  a  loss.  In 
cases  of  emergency,  where  some  work  must  be 
done  within  limited  time,  or  in  seasons  when  work 
is  plentiful  and  the  demand  for  men  is  equal  to 
the  supply,  or  even  temporarily  exceeds  it,  very 
inferior  workmen  are  retained  if  the  need  for 
their  service  is  so  pressing  as  to  overcome  the  dis- 
satisfaction caused  by  their  incompetency.  An- 
other reason  why  they  cannot  be  discharged 
without  loss  is  that  many  union  scales  provide 
that  a  man  engaged  must  be  paid  for  a  certain 
time,  whatever  the  unit  may  be,  a  day  being  the 
smallest  unit  permissible.  This  rule  is  a  just 
one,  for  men  ordered  to  report  should  be  assured 
of  something.  But  it  would  appear  to  be  equally 
just  that  men  sent  in  answer  to  a  call  addressed 
to  union  headquarters  should  be  competent  to  do 
the  work  for  which  the  call  itself  assures  their 
pay. 

We  demand  and  enforce  a  closed  shop  wherever 
possible.  There  could  be  no  greater  force  behind 
that  demand  than  a  high  standard  of  competency 
in  the  men  who  make  it.    And  such  a  standard 

[77] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

would  conduce  to  the  peaceful  settlement  of  the 
question  of  the  closed  shop,  at  least  in  industries 
requiring  skill,  for  the  line  of  least  resistance  for 
the  employer  in  such  a  case  would  be  to  turn  to  a 
sufficiently  numerous  organized  body  of  efficient 
workmen,  and  to  contract  with  them  for  such 
help  as  he  requires,  thus  solving  one  of  the  most 
vexatious  problems  with  which  he  must  contend — 
the  selection  of  a  capable  force  of  workmen. 

The  establishment  of  a  high  standard  of  com- 
petency is  an  object  worthy  of  the  best  efforts  of 
the  unions,  both  for  its  favorable  effect  on  the 
prospects  of  individual  members  and  the  tre- 
mendously increased  strength  of  the  unions  as 
organizations.    How  shall  that  object  be  attained? 

As  the  twig  is  bent  so  will  the  tree  incline.  The 
competent  workman  is  the  growth  of  the  well 
trained  apprentice.  Natural  adaptability  and 
quickness  of  perception  quite  often  enable  a 
neglected  apprentice  to  make  of  himself  a  com- 
petent journeyman,  but  the  results  of  neglect 
are  nevertheless  painfully  apparent  in  every 
trade.  In  this  country  the  boy  who  learns  a 
trade  "steals"  it,  as  the  phrase  goes.  Sometimes 
he  has  nothing  more  to  complain  of  than  indif- 
ference and  neglect;  sometimes  he  has  to  overcome 

[78] 


THE  APPRENTICE 

open  or  overt  hostility.  In  either  case  it  is  a 
poHcy  which  in  its  results  is  equivalent  to  race 
suicide  on  the  destiny  of  nations.  To  the  extent 
to  which  responsibility  for  this  condition  may 
justly  be  laid  at  our  door  we  are  demonstrating 
both  selfishness  and  shortsightedness  to  an  inex- 
cusable degree.  A  generation  of  apprentices 
grows  to  manhood  every  five  years,  and  the 
strength  and  permanence  of  our  institution  is 
dependent  primarily  upon  the  absorption  of  the 
principles  of  co-operation  by  these  boys,  and  then 
upon  their  ability  as  workmen;  for  there  can  be 
no  successful  refutation  of  the  dogma  that  the 
union  is  negligible  unless  it  includes  the  major 
fraction  of  competent  artisans,  and  it  becomes 
proportionately  more  powerful  as  that  fraction 
approaches  100  per  cent,  of  the  number  of  de- 
sirable men  engaged  in  the  industry. 

Many  a  man  who  is  a  competent  artisan  to-day 
knows  that  he  has  really  learned  his  trade  after 
he  became  a  journeyman,  by  the  exercise  of  his 
faculties  of  observation  and  imitation,  rather 
than  by  the  teaching  to  which  he  as  an  apprentice 
was  entitled.  Others,  whose  unaided  capacity 
to  learn  was  not  equal  to  the  task,  remain  un- 
fortunate incompetents  through  life.     It  is  true 

[79] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

that  some  boys  will  make  no  effort  to  learn,  but 
are  contented  to  loaf  their  way  through  their 
junior  years,  heedless  of  the  penalty  they  will  be 
called  upon  to  pay  when  manhood  is  reached, 
but  even  that  fact  is  capable  of  correction  if  in- 
telligent and  systematic  training  is  enforced  upon 
boys  by  the  supervising  authority  of  the  union. 

Employers  must  accept  a  share  of  the  respon- 
sibility for  this  state  of  affairs.  In  their  desire 
to  transmute  the  boy's  services  into  the  largest 
immediate  cash  return  to  themselves,  the  boy  is 
utilized  during  all  or  a  greater  part  of  his  ap- 
prenticeship at  tasks  requiring  no  great  skill,  or 
else  is  taught  a  single  operation,  and  kept  con- 
tinuously employed  in  its  repetition.  The  boy 
of  good  natural  capacity  and  praiseworthy  ambi- 
tion will  absorb  theory  and  will  "steal"  practice, 
but  too  many  contentedly  sink  into  the  rut  so 
conveniently  laid  down  for  them.  Some  in- 
dividual workmen  are  imbued  with  that  generous 
spirit  which  makes  them  regard  it  as  a  duty  to 
assist  the  eager  learner;  some  are  so  lacking  in 
human  fellowship  as  to  be  capable  of  actually 
obstructing  the  boy  in  his  progress  over  what  is 
at  best  a  thorny  path.  But  most  men  are  simply 
indifferent — willing  to  answer  a  question  or  give 

[80] 


THE  APPRENTICE 

some  instruction  if  the  assistance  is  not  too  fre- 
quently requested,  but  not  at  all  likely  to  dis- 
commode themselves  or  to  interest  themselves. 
It  is  clear,  then,  that  this  important  matter 
cannot  be  left  to  the  employer,  the  workman  or 
the  boy  himself.  The  union  alone  can  do  much 
toward  remedying  the  evil,  but  the  ideal  method 
is  that  of  co-operation  between  the  union  and  the 
employer,  with  definite  regulations  rigidly  en- 
forced. In  this  country  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  has  made  a  praiseworthy  be- 
ginning in  the  direction  of  proper  training  by  the 
establishment  of  a  correspondence  course  which 
has  justified  itself  by  excellent  results,  both  for  the 
apprentice  and  for  the  journeyman  who  sought 
its  benefits.  But  good  as  this  course  is,  it  can 
never  reach  the  root  of  the  evil  and  will  never 
eradicate  more  than  a  small  percentage  of  in- 
competency. Being  optional,  and  costing  a  little 
money,  it  cannot  do  its  beneficent  work  until  it 
has  first  overcome  the  inertia  which  is  the  principal 
stumbling  block  to  all  efforts  at  human  better- 
ment. Praiseworthy  effort  is  indeed  made  to 
accomplish  this  by  widespread  advertising  in  the 
printing  trade  of  the  unquestionable  usefulness 
of  the  course;  still,  the  response  is  but  a  limited 

[81] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

one  as  compared  with  the  whole  number  who  need 
instruction. 

It  is  both  the  duty  and  the  interest  of  a  union 
to  exercise  supervision  over  the  training  of  ap- 
prentices. We  may  assume  that  most  employers 
would  give  hearty  support  to  a  serious  effort  to 
remedy  this  evil,  and  in  the  cases  of  such  as 
would  not,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  which 
side  public  sentiment  would  take  if  a  controversy 
arose  between  a  union  seeking  to  secure  adequate 
training  for  apprentices  and  an  employer  who 
wished  to  exploit  them  for  his  own  profit,  to  the 
destruction  of  their  prospects.  Agreements  be- 
tween the  parties  should  contain  definite  pro- 
visions as  to  the  course  of  instructions  to  be  laid 
down  for  apprentices,  and  there  should  be  periodi- 
cal examinations  to  determine  proficiency,  by  a 
board  iipon  which  both  employers  and  employees 
are  represented.  The  details  of  such  a  system 
would  necessarily  be  determined  by  the  special 
circumstances  surrounding  each  industry;  but  in 
every  instance  haphazard  compliance  with  or 
evasion  of  the  agreement  should  be  prevented 
by  placing  specific  duties  and  responsibilities 
upon  proper  officials   or  representatives  of  the 

[82] 


THE  APPRENTICE 

union    and    of    the    association    of    employers. 

Inequality  of  ability  will  make  natural  grada- 
tions of  competency  among  boys,  no  matter 
whether  well  or  ill  trained.  But  an  apprentice 
who  goes  through  such  a  course  of  preparation 
with  nothing  better  than  a  rating  high  enough  to 
pass  him,  is  even  then  certain  to  be  an  artisan  of 
skill  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  meet  the  ordinary 
requirements  of  his  employment.  A  further  im- 
portant advantage  of  such  a  system  is  its  auto- 
matic elimination  of  the  incapable  and  undesirable. 
The  boy  who  cannot  be  taught  and  the  boy  who 
will  not  learn,  the  mentally  or  physically  deficient, 
and  the  idle  or  vicious,  will  develop  those  character- 
istics, and  it  should  be  a  function  of  the  examining 
board  to  exercise  discretion  in  such  instances. 

Boys  so  taught  and  watched  over  by  a  union 
will  absorb  unionism  with  every  breath;  will  see 
its  benefits  demonstrated  to  their  own  advantage 
from  the  hour  they  begin  their  apprenticeship; 
will  find  themselves  protected  against  favoritism 
and  assured  of  equal  opportunity.  Parents  will 
endeavor  to  have  their  boys  brought  up  under 
such  auspices,  and  the  men  such  boys  will  grow 
into  will  seldom  fail  to  be  both  a  credit  to  and  a 
bulwark  of  the  union  which  thus  guarded  them. 

[83] 


X.    CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING  (WITH  AN 
ADDED  FEATURE) 

To  raise  wages  is  not  the  only  means  of  making 
the  members  of  a  union  prosperous.  Under 
conceivable  circumstances  raising  wages  may  be 
of  no  benefit  whatever.  For  more  than  a  decade 
there  has  been  a  steady  increase  in  the  cost  of 
living.  Trades  unions  have  made  this  increased 
cost  of  living  the  basis  of  demands  for  higher 
wages,  and  have  in  the  more  successful  instances 
secured  increases  of  from  10  to  20  per  cent,  during 
a  period  in  which  the  average  increase  in  the  cost 
of  commodities  has  been  35  per  cent,  and  the 
increase  in  food  stuffs  (the  largest  single  item 
in  the  expenditure  of  the  average  family)  has 
been  as  high  as  70  per  cent. 

If  the  unions  had  succeeded  in  uniformly  raising 
wages  in  the  same  degree  as  prices  had  advanced, 
they  would  at  the  same  time  have  made  the  lot 
of  less  fortunate  persons  still  harder  to  bear. 
If  the  whole  working  population  had  been  success- 
ful in  securing  added  compensation  equal  to  the 

[84] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

advance  in  prices,  none  of  them  would  have  been 
benefited;  the  demand  for  an  increased  wage 
would  begin  again,  and  the  vicious  circle  be 
traversed  once  more.  Not  only  more  wages,  but 
more  for  our  wages  should  be  our  object. 

The  basic  fact  of  higher  cost  of  living  being 
incontrovertible,  increases  have  in  many  cases 
been  obtained,  in  some  few  instances  being  volun- 
tarily granted.  Do  these  increases  in  wage,  then, 
bring  about  such  a  betterment  in  burdensome 
conditions  as  give  reasonable  contentment  to 
those  who  receive  them.f^ 

Every  increase  in  wages  is  at  once  added  to  the 
cost  of  the  product,  and  always  with  additional 
charge  for  the  greater  capital  employed.  A  couple 
of  illustrations  will  serve  to  show  addition  to 
selling  cost  for  which  increased  wages  are  the 
excuse.  In  the  first  example  a  clothing  manu- 
facturer was  accustomed  to  add  25  per  cent,  to  the 
manufacturing  cost  of  his  product.  Wage  in- 
creases made  a  suit  that  had  cost  $5.00  to  manu- 
facture stand  him  $6.00.  He  recouped  himself, 
not  by  adding  the  extra  dollar  to  the  selling  cost, 
but  by  adding  the  same  25  per  cent,  to  the  new 
manufacturing  cost.  Hence  the  suit  was  not 
raised  $1.00,  but  $1.25,  and  the  manufacturer 

[85] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

got  a  larger  margin  than  before.  The  other  in- 
stance was  far  worse.  When  the  coal  miners 
secured  an  increase  of  10  per  cent,  in  1903,  that  in- 
crease was  based  on  the  cost  of  a  ton  of  coal 
ready  for  shipment,  which  was  about  $1.80, 
hence  the  increased  wage  was  about  18  cents  a 
ton.  The  coal  companies  (the  railroads)  im- 
mediately increased  the  cost  of  a  ton  of  coal 
10  per  cent.  But  the  price  of  coal  was  $5.00, 
and  10  per  cent,  added  to  that  sum  made  the  ton 
of  coal  cost  $5.50.  Thus  the  outlay  of  18  cents 
in  wages  was  made  the  excuse  for  extorting  50 
cents  from  the  consumer.  Within  the  present 
year  a  similar  piece  of  manipulation  which  added 
6  cents  to  the  wage  cost  of  a  ton  of  coal  was  the 
basis  for  an  increase  of  25  cents  in  selling  price. 
There  need  be  no  doubt  that  wage  increases  are 
universally  transferred  in  this  manner  to  the 
consumer,  and  nearly  always  with  an  additional 
impost.  Under  such  circumstances  wage  in- 
creases are  but  a  doubtful  benefit  to  the  mass  of 
workers. 

Many  causes  have  been  assigned  for  the 
terrifying  increase  in  living  cost  which  we  must 
face.  Scientific  economists  blame  it  on  the 
enlarged  production  of  gold.    "Union  busters "  lay 

[86] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

it  all  at  the  door  of  unions.  Land  speculation  is 
not  without  blame,  for  speculative  increases  in 
land  values  and  the  locking  up  of  land-using 
opportunities  must  enhance  the  cost  of  all  land 
in  use,  which  in  turn  reacts  upon  the  cost  of  all 
products.  The  tariff  gives  some  thrifty  gentle- 
men an  opportunity  which  they  are  quick  to  see 
and  take  advantage  of.  Devious  burrowings 
into  the  public  purse  were  estimated  by  Judge 
Howard,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  as  responsible  for  the  wasteful  dissipa- 
tion of  40  per  cent,  of  the  amount  collected. 
Monopolistic  ownerships  and  wasteful  use  of 
natural  resources  are  a  principal  factor.  Each 
of  these  has  its  influence  on  the  cost  of  living, 
and  no  one  of  them  can  be  awarded  the  bad 
eminence  of  being  the  sole  cause. 

But  there  is  one  infliction  which  is  the  source  of 
as  much  of  the  extortion  which  is  bleeding  us  white 
as  any  of  them,  perhaps  more  than  any  single 
one.  That  is  the  toll  taken  by  the  middleman — 
big  and  little — who  stands  between  producer  and 
consumer  and  unconscionably  robs  both.  While 
all  the  other  causes  mentioned  above  cannot  be 
directly  attacked  by  the  unions,  this  last  matter 

[87] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

of  the  middleman  is  one  evil  that  it  is  in  our  power 
greatly  to  abate. 

Organized  labor  has  hitherto  devoted  its  at- 
tention almost  entirely  to  matters  concerning 
production.  Wage  scales,  shop  conditions  and 
the  like  have  been  subjects  of  union  legislation. 
The  influence  of  the  problems  of  distribution  upon 
our  welfare  has  been  ignored  until  recently, 
when  the  boycott  and  the  union  label  have  been 
more  or  less  exploited  in  the  attempt  to  exercise 
some  degree  of  control  over  distribution.  Since 
it  was  a  limited  application  of  the  principle  of  co- 
operation that  has  won  for  trades  unions  so  much 
success  as  they  have  attained,  it  should  be  obvious 
to  the  meanest  intelligence  that  further  advance 
can  only  be  gained  by  broader  applications  of  the 
same  principle. 

It  has  been  shown  in  previous  chapters  that  the 
advancement,  or  even  the  maintenance,  of  the  in- 
terests of  trades  unionism  was  made  increasingly 
difficult  by  the  growth  of  organization  among 
employers.  The  realization  of  this  fact  led  to  a 
search  for  expedients  to  stimulate  the  use  of 
union  made  products  as  such,  and  so  enhance  the 
influence  of  unionism  and  increase  its  member- 
ship.    Particularly  it  became  evident  to  union 

[88] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

men  that  the  expenditure  of  our  earnings,  which 
might  be  made  so  powerful  a  factor  in  upbuilding 
our  organizations,  was  in  major  part  actually  being 
spent  for  the  strengthening  and  enrichment  of 
non-union  plants  and  workmen,  and  in  some 
measure  to  the  advantage  of  bitterly  active 
opponents.  So  the  label  and  boycott  came  to  be 
included  in  the  policies  of  organized  labor,  and  it 
is  now  pertinent  to  inquire  to  what  extent  they 
have  been  successful  instruments  for  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  designed. 

The  boycott,  being  a  direct  antagonism  of 
definite  persons  and  products,  was  sure  to  arouse 
violent  resentment  and  any  kind  of  retaliation 
that  was  in  the  power  of  those  attacked.  It  was 
one  of  those  policies  that  could  not  fail  to  become 
a  matter  of  judicial  review,  and  it  was  reasonably 
certain  that  courts  would  in  the  main  render 
decisions  unfavorable  to  its  legal  status.  Al- 
though no  pronouncement  has  as  yet  been  made 
by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  as  to  the 
legality  of  the  boycott,  it  is  wise  to  anticipate 
that  when  the  question  is  squarely  before  that 
tribunal,  the  decision  will  be  against  us.  It  is 
possible  to  make  a  defense  of  our  right  to  boycott, 
and  such  a  defense  was  written  by  me  and  pub- 

[89] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

lished  in  The  Independent  of  January  28,  1909. 
But  it  would  lead  us  too  far  afield  to  consider  that 
point  in  this  connection.  What  we  are  now  con- 
cerned with  is  whether  the  boycott  is  the  best 
instrument,  or  even  a  good  instrument  for  the 
purpose  in  view.  The  effort  to  carry  on  boy- 
cotts, being  thus  certain  to  involve  us  in  legal 
difficulties,  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the 
results  obtained  are  worth  the  expenditure  of 
money  and  energy  necessary  to  obtain  them. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  take  a  very  active  part 
in  the  boycott  instituted  against  the  products  of 
the  Butterick  Company  by  Typographical  Union 
No,  6  in  1906,  and  later  carried  on  by  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union.  This  boycott 
was,  I  verily  believe,  better  organized,  more  de- 
termined, and  more  damaging  to  the  parties  it 
was  aimed  at  than  any  other  I  have  knowledge  of, 
not  excepting  that  against  the  Buck  Stove  and 
Range  Company,  which  is  more  widely  known 
only  because  of  the  adventitious  circumstances 
that  brought  the  highest  officials  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  into  court.  Not  only  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  but  in  Cuba,  Germany 
and  Austria  the  International  Typographical 
Union  cut  into  the  sales  and  captured  the  cus- 

[90] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

tomers  of  the  Butterick  Company.  Wherever  a 
typographical  union  was  organized,  there,  in 
greater  or  less  degree  the  boycott  was  pushed. 
The  expected  court  proceedings  were  in  evidence 
at  all  times.  There  were  arrests,  injunctions,  ac- 
tions for  criminal  contempt,  etc.  In  short,  I 
doubt  if  a  more  thorough  trial  of  the  efficiency  of 
the  boycott  has  ever  been  made. 

Now,  what  about  results .^^  That  the  Butterick 
people  were  considerably  damaged  they  them- 
selves admitted.  Eventually  the  Butterick  house 
was  unionized  again,  but  it  is  not  possible  for  us 
to  say  to  what  extent  the  boycott  was  responsible 
for  that  consummation.  It  is  within  my  knowl- 
edge, however,  that  it  had  been  decreasing  in 
intensity  for  two  years  before  an  agreement  with 
the  company  was  reached,  in  1911,  and  that  at  the 
time  of  settlement  the  boycott  was  practically 
dormant. 

I  was  very  active  in  this  matter,  and  from  the 
experience  then  gained  I  have  reached  definite 
conclusions.  We  expended  a  large  amount  of 
mioney;  how  large  I  do  not  know.  There  was  a 
continuous  distribution  of  printed  matter  and  of 
comparatively  expensive  novelties  bearing  appro- 
priate inscriptions.    There  were  speakers  sent  to 

[91] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

tour  the  country.  There  was  an  organizer  whose 
sole  duty  it  was  to  further  the  boycott.  There  was 
a  prominent  lawyer  engaged  by  the  year.  So 
far  as  money  could  compass  our  object,  we  were 
not  niggardly.  But  money  is  only  one  of  the 
essential  factors  a  union  needs  in  the  conduct  of 
an  affair  of  this  kind.  Far  more  than  money, 
it  must  have  the  enthusiastic  devotion  of  its 
members  to  the  continuous,  laborious  and  un- 
pleasant work  needful  to  make  the  expenditure 
of  money  effective.  This,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
I  found  it  impossible  to  get.  And  even  these  few, 
in  the  course  of  time,  finding  themselves  unsup- 
ported by  the  great  majority,  began  to  get  luke- 
warm and  at  last  ceased  to  labor  in  a  field  so 
vast  and  so  deserted.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever  that  if  the  bulk  of  the  membership 
had  been  as  devoted  as  our  self  sacrificing  band 
of  a  few  hundreds,  who  for  nearly  four  years 
gave  time  and  energy  to  the  work,  the  results 
would  have  been  tremendously  greater.  But  this 
apathy  being  so  widespread  among  our  own 
membership,  it  can  easily  be  imagined  what  sort 
of  inertia  we  encountered  when  appealing  to  the 
membership  of  other  unions  and  to  the  general 
public.     It  was  not  that  we  had  no  success;  the 

[92] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

Butterick  Company  is  the  best  witness  to  the 
contrary.  But  it  is  scarcely  believable  how  un- 
remittingly we  had  to  labor  to  save  what  we  had 
done  one  day  from  becoming  useless  the  next. 
And  this  fact  eventually  led  to  the  abandonment 
of  the  boycott  and  the  slow  recovery  by  the 
Butterick  Company  of  the  ground  it  had  lost. 
Therefore  my  opinion  is  that  no  boycott  can 
completely  and  permanently  accomplish  the  result 
sought,  and  very  few  will  do  nearly  as  much  in 
that  direction  as  the  one  here  spoken  of,  which 
finally  became  a  failure. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  results  of  label  ex- 
ploitation. Unlike  the  boycott,  there  is  no  direct 
attack  on  any  person  or  product  in  pushing  a 
union  label,  and  hence  the  feature  of  personal 
bitterness  and  legal  conflict  is  absent  from  this 
work.  But  the  inertia  previously  complained  of 
is  even  more  to  be  dreaded.  It  is  easier  to  interest 
the  average  man  in  a  fight  than  in  an  abstract 
duty,  and  that  very  note  of  hostility  so  dominant 
in  the  boycott  brought  about  results  that  an 
appeal  to  support  a  label  because  he  ought  to 
could  never  bring.  The  great  diflSculty,  in  large 
cities  at  least,  of  finding  a  store  where  label 
goods  are  sold,  is  almost  an  insurmountable  objec- 

[93] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

tion.  Few  men  and  fewer  women  are  heroic 
enough  to  spend  time  and  carfare  to  get  a  union 
label  on  their  purchases.  Of  course,  if  all  union 
men  and  those  dependent  on  them  were  filled  with 
a  spirit  of  unwavering  determination  to  buy  only 
label  goods,  a  demand  so  insistent  would  lead  to 
the  creation  of  markets  where  it  could  be  supplied. 
But  we  all  know  how  far  short  the  union  army 
falls  of  such  devotion.  Another  serious  objection 
is  that  label  goods  are  often  either  inferior  in 
quality  or  more  expensive.  This  charge  is  un- 
deniable. The  unions  state  the  conditions  of 
wages  and  hours  upon  which  the  use  of  the  label 
is  permitted,  but  they  have  no  voice  as  to  quality 
or  price.  Both  manufacturers  and  middlemen, 
in  localities  where  there  is  a  genuine  demand  for 
label  products,  load  on  all  the  traffic  will  bear, 
being  well  aware  that  the  label  covers  a  multitude 
of  sins.  But  the  result  of  this  fact  is  to  create  a 
prejudice  against  label  goods  even  among  union 
men,  and  as  for  the  general  public,  it  would  be 
a  persuasive  orator  indeed  who  could  induce  them 
to  pay  more  money  for  less  value  out  of  sympathy 
with  unionism. 

The  advertising  of  a  label,  like  the  advertising 
of  a  boycott,  is  very  expensive.     And  also,  like 

[94] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

the  boycott,  the  personal  devotion  of  the  mem- 
bership is  essential  to  success.  The  labor  at- 
tendant upon  keeping  it  before  the  public  must 
not  be  permitted  to  lag,  or  the  effect  is  disastrous. 
Yet  with  all  this,  it  is  a  question  whether  the 
return  is  a  respectable  equivalent  for  the  outlay 
of  money  and  energy.  The  hatters'  label  is 
probably  a  notable  exception  to  this  rule,  and 
in  a  less  degree  the  labels  of  the  printers  and  cigar- 
makers.  The  latter  are  really  marvels  of  perti- 
nacity in  their  label  work,  yet  withal  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  their  results  are  no  more  than 
moderately  successful. 

This  is  not  an  attack  upon  the  present  instru- 
ments of  organization  work.  Until  better  means 
are  found,  it  is  impossible  to  dispense  with  them. 
But  we  should  not  be  content  with  the  assumption 
that  boycott  and  label  are  the  best  devices  for 
creating  markets  for  union  products,  and  thus 
stimulating  union  growth.  The  considerations 
above  presented  lead  me  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  manner  in  which  boycott  and  label  exploitation 
is  conducted  is  wasteful  and  unscientific,  in  that 
it  is  lacking  in  the  element  of  definiteness.  There 
is  no  systematic  arrangement  or  plan  for  the 
attainment  of  well  understood  purposes,  but  only 

[95] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

haphazard  and  unconnected  efforts,  tremendously 
laborious  and  expensive,  directed  against  an 
inertia  that  is  invincible.  It  is  time,  therefore, 
to  seek  a  method  which  cannot  be  condemned  by 
courts,  and  which  will  economically  and  thor- 
oughly achieve  the  results  vainly  sought  through 
the  label  and  the  boycott. 

After  the  collapse  of  the  Butterick  boycott  I 
read  some  literature  concerning  the  origin  and 
growth  of  co-operative  societies  in  England, 
France  and  Belgium.  I  will  not  weary  you  with 
statistics,  and  yet  the  figures  are  more  eloquent 
than  words  could  be  in  presenting  the  enormous 
advance  made  by  these  societies,  until  now  they 
are  not  only  retailers  whose  operations  are  com- 
parable to  those  of  the  greatest  merchants,  but 
they  are  wholesalers  and  manufacturers  as  well, 
who  daily  increase  the  scope  of  their  activities. 
These  facts  I  have  pondered  long,  until  now  I 
should  like  to  give  you  my  conception  of  how  we 
may  apply  the  century  of  wisdom  gained  by 
experience  in  Europe. 

Our  problem  is  to  build  up  our  organizations 
by  inducing  the  consumption  of  goods  made 
by  our  members.  If  while  doing  this  we  can 
at  the  same  time  reduce  the  cost  of  living  for 

[961 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

ourselves  and  as  many  others  as  will  join  us,  by 
the  partial  or  total  elimination  of  one  of  the 
great  factors  in  swelling  that  cost,  we  will  have 
done  a  work  of  vital  importance  for  trades  union- 
ism and  for  humanity  as  well. 

Surely  any  proposition  that  holds  out  a  promise 
of  such  a  consummation  should  be  respectfully 
received   and   earnestly  considered. 

My  proposal  is  that  a  great  co-operative  society 
should  be  formed,  to  be  controlled  and  directed 
by  the  international  unions.  Individuals  should 
be  debarred  from  holding  stock,  and  also  any 
corporate  bodies  other  than  trades  unions.  The 
government  of  the  society  should  be  in  a  board  of 
directors  representative  of  the  various  unions 
engaged  in  the  enterprise.  The  object  of  a  co- 
operative society  is  to  cheapen  the  cost  of  products 
by  eliminating  the  profits  and  greatly  duplicated 
running  expenses  of  the  middleman.  This  society 
would  seek  the  same  object,  but  in  addition  thereto 
and  of  at  least  equal  importance  therewith,  it 
would  have  the  object  of  assuring  all  union  men 
that  the  wages  they  were  spending  were  buying 
products  made  by  themselves,  and  that  thus 
they  were  gaining  all  the  benefits  accruing  from 
co-operative  trading,  plus  the  even  more  valuable 

[97] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

one  of  building  up  their  organizations  and  securing 
employment  for  themselves. 

Consider  all  possible  objections  that  can  be 
urged  against  the  label  and  the  boycott,  and  see  if 
they  would  not  be  eliminated  by  the  formation 
of  such  a  society. 

1.  The  goods  handled  by  that  society  would  be 
union  made.  Thus  every  union  man  could  pur- 
chase union  goods  without  the  physical  weariness 
and  vexation  of  spirit  which  now  attends  a 
search  for  such  articles. 

2.  No  court  could  find  an  infringement  of  anti- 
trust laws,  or  an  illegal  interference  with  the 
rights  of  others,  in  the  operations  of  such  a  society. 

3.  There  would  be  no  need  for  the  expenditure 
of  vast  sums  of  money  and  laborious  efforts  to 
advertise  a  boycott  or  a  label.  The  plan  would 
be  automatic.  While  a  manufacturer  employed 
union  labor  he  could  sell  his  goods  to  union  labor 
through  the  society.  If  he  declared  an  "open 
shop,"  that  market  would  be  closed  to  him  com- 
pletely and  immediately. 

4.  The  profits  from  the  co-operative  trading 
society  would  go  into  the  pockets  of  union  men, 
less   expenses   of   administration,   instead   of   to 

[98] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

middlemen,   who   so   frequently   are   avowed   or 
secret  enemies. 

5.  Many  persons  to  whom  we  now  appeal  to 
look  for  a  label  or  uphold  a  boycott  as  a  matter 
of  sympathy  would  in  such  a  case  give  us  their 
support  without  solicitation,  for  the  purpose  of 
sharing  in  the  profits. 

6.  The  complaint  that  label  goods  are  so  fre- 
quently inferior  to  other  goods  at  the  same  price 
(which  is  largely  true  because  unscrupulous  manu- 
facturers know  that  the  label  will  sell  the  goods), 
will  be  avoided,  because  such  a  society,  making 
enormous  purchases,  would  be  in  a  position  to 
demand  proper  value  for  its  money. 

7.  Greatest  of  all,  how  thoroughly  we  would  be 
observing  the  advice  of  Rabbi  Wise,  to  "Organize! 
organize!!  organize!!!"  Who  can  conceive  of  a 
method  more  certain  to  bring  men  tumbling 
into  the  union  fold  than  the  fact  that  their 
employers  must  have  union  men  to  make  things 
for  this  tremendous  market. 

Look  what  it  cost  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  in  the  fight  with  the  Butterick 
Company!  Look  at  the  fight  the  hatters  had  to 
make  to  save  their  label!  Look  at  the  inferior 
cigar  the  blue  label  of  the  cigarmakers  is  com- 

[99] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

pelled  to  cover,  because  the  union  can  stipulate 
wages  and  hours,  but  not  material!  Look  at  the 
abasement  we  must  suffer  in  begging  middlemen 
to  please  give  us  an  opportunity  to  buy  union- 
made  goods,  which  request  is  so  frequently  refused 
with  scorn!  Look  at  the  thousands  poured  into 
the  pockets  of  lawyers  to  defend  us  in  court  against 
attempts  to  put  us  in  jail  because  we  ask  each 
other  to  refrain  from  buying  non-union  products! 
And  then  consider  that  each  of  these  diflBculties 
would  melt  like  snow  before  the  summer  sun  if  a 
great  union  co-operative  society  were  in  existence. 

What   are   unions   but   co-operative   societies? 

What  human  progress  was  ever  attained  save  as 

<>    a   co-operative   measure?     When    will    we   learn 

that  the  purchasing  power  of  our  wages  is  a  lever 

to  which  all  our  other  activities  are  as  naught? 

Sufficient  basis  for  the  formulation  of  a  plan  can 
undoubtedly  be  found  in  the  co-operative  socie- 
ties of  Europe.  Co-operative  banking,  co-opera- 
tive retailing,  wholesaling  and  manufacturing 
have  all  emerged  from  their  period  of  probation. 
That  which  is  known  as  the  plan  of  the  Rochdale 
pioneers  is  the  model  commonly  used  in  Europe 
for  retailing,  and  would  probably  furnish  such  a 
society  as  is  here  advocated  with  the  essential 
[100] 


CO-OPERATIVE  TRADING 

features  requisite  to  success.  Such  modifications 
could  be  made  as  the  varying  circumstances 
might  require.  For  example,  the  capital  neces- 
sary for  a  co-operative  store  is  there  furnished  by 
the  individual  co-operators;  in  a  society  such  as  the 
one  under  consideration  it  would  be  contributed 
by  the  international  unions  as  co-operators,  in 
order  to  maintain  control  for  the  purpose  of 
insuring  the  marketing  of  union-made  goods  ex- 
clusively. The  dividend-paying  feature,  based 
upon  the  amount  of  purchases,  should  certainly  be 
retained,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it 
would  be  as  effective  in  attracting  customers  as  it 
has  proved  to  be  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  maintains 
fraternal  relations  with  the  Farmers'  Educational 
and  Co-operative  Union  of  America.  Suppose 
there  was  progress  on  co-operative  lines  in  both 
these  bodies.  Does  it  not  create  a  thrill  to  only 
imagine  the  co-operative  society  of  producing 
farmers  selling  its  product  to  the  co-operative 
society  of  consuming  union  men,  and  vice-versa, 
with  not  a  middleman  anywhere  between?  Could 
heaven  be  much  better  than  that? 

I  am  not  dreaming.  I  do  not  expect  that  such  a 
society  as  this  will  spring  full  grown  and  full  armed 
[101] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

into  the  arena  of  life's  struggle.  I  do  not  look 
for  the  far-reaching  results  I  have  described  the 
day  after  such  a  society  may  be  organized.  I 
know  that  this  is  a  vast  undertaking,  requiring 
honesty,  ability  and  patience.  But  I  know  also 
that  in  the  army  of  labor  those  qualities  may  be 
found. 

Some  may  ask  me  what  detailed  plan  of  co- 
operation I  have  in  mind.  My  answer  will  be 
the  same  as  in  the  matter  of  organization  by 
industry:  I  advocate  no  plan  to  the  exclusion  of 
any  other.  Should  the  international  unions  of 
North  America  adopt  this  suggestion,  able  men 
could  study  and  report  on  the  best  manner  of 
carrying  it  out. 

Only  this  is  the  point  of  insistence  again:  the 
line  of  least  resistance  is  the  line  of  co-operation. 
And  no  form  of  co-operation  upon  which  we  may 
enter,  no  policy  which  we  may  adopt,  can  even 
faintly  compare  with  the  social,  political  and 
economic  advantages  which  would  be  consequent 
upon  this  control  of  the  expenditure  of  our 
earnings. 


[102] 


XI.  RELATED  THINGS 

Our  survey  has  hitherto  concerned  itself  with 
those  functions  of  the  union  which  bear  directly 
upon  the  upbuilding  of  the  organization  and  upon 
the  conditions  which  affect  employment.  Those 
who  hold  to  a  narrow  conception  of  the  purposes 
and  scope  of  the  union  will  argue  that  the  ques- 
tion, What  Shall  We  Do.''  has  been  redundantly 
answered  now. 

Men  gathered  together  in  that  marvelous  com- 
plex we  call  society  are  so  inextricably  inter- 
dependent that  only  distortion  can  result  from 
an  attempt  to  fix  the  status  of  a  man  or  an  associa- 
tion without  due  consideration  of  these  mutual 
reactions.  This  is  a  truism  so  obvious  that  it  is 
sufficiently  established  by  a  mere  statement. 
Therefore,  the  symmetry  of  our  inquiry  requires 
that  we  shall  at  least  briefly  reflect  upon  the 
relations  of  unions  and  union  men  to  society  in 
those  aspects  not  directly  connected  with  the 
shop. 

To  get  a  living  is  the  first  necessity  of  man;  to 
exercise  his  proper  weight  in  the  government 
[  103  ] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

under  which  he  Hves  is  the  second;  and  these  two 
are  one.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  political  institutions 
have  no  influence  on  economic  conditions.  Hence 
the  union  and  the  individuals  who  compose  it 
have  a  vital  interest  in  the  politics  of  their  com- 
munity.    How  shall  that  interest  find  expression? 

In  my  view  the  question  resolves  itself  into 
the  acceptance  of  one  of  two  alternatives:  Should 
the  unions  as  organizations  and  the  individuals 
who  compose  them  segregate  themselves  into  an 
exclusive  political  organization;  or  should  they, 
on  the  contrary,  avoid  any  semblance  of  regarding 
themselves  as  a  class  separated  in  aims  and  in- 
terests from  the  rest  of  the  community? 

Before  setting  down  my  own  ideas  I  beg  leave 
to  say  that  in  this,  above  all  other  matters  treated 
in  this  essay,  I  desire  not  to  appear  dogmatic. 
My  opinions  are  sincerely  held,  and  have  not  been 
lightly  reached;  in  that  spirit  they  are  offered 
for  such  consideration  as  they  may  deserve.  In 
that  spirit  I  approach  the  writing  of  what  I  find 
to  be  the  most  difficult  half  dozen  pages  in  the 
book,  and  while  I  do  not  blench  from  criticism, 
I  hope  that  mj  critics  may  be  free  from  rancor, 
for  I  assure  all  who  may  read  this  that  I  feel 
none. 

[104] 


RELATED  THINGS 

"Labor"  parties  having  their  inception  in  local 
central  bodies,  and  seldom  growing  beyond  their 
confines,  are  sporadic  eruptions  mechanically 
manufactured.  Upon  rare  occasions,  as  in  the 
campaign  made  by  the  United  Labor  party  in 
New  York  City  in  1886,  with  Henry  George  as  its 
candidate  for  Mayor,  such  movements  become 
formidable  enough  to  attain  temporary  im- 
portance. Another  instance  of  somewhat  similar 
character,  but  not  so  distinctly  associated  with 
trades  unionism,  was  the  candidacy  of  William 
R.  Hearst  for  Mayor  of  New  York  City  in  1905. 
In  that  campaign  many  unions  officially  passed 
resolutions  of  endorsement,  which,  though  not 
binding  upon  members,  were  so  expressive  of  the 
feelings  of  the  great  majority  of  them  as  to  meet 
with  hardly  any  opposition.  But  the  significant 
fact  about  all  these  revolts  from  customary  party 
affiliations  is  their  evanescent  character.  En- 
thusiasm they  occasionally  develop;  vitality  never. 

Naturally  there  will  spring  to  every  mind  in 
connection  with  this  phase  of  our  discussion,  the 
name  of  the  Socialist  party.  Here,  its  members 
will  declare,  is  a  vehicle  ready  to  the  hands  and 
peculiarly  fitted  to  the  needs  of  workingmen. 
[105] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

The  Socialist  party  has  shown  unquestionable 
vitality  and  growth. 

As  for  the  "labor  parties"  that  are  born  »o 
often  and  just  as  often  die  "a-bornin',"  so  far  as 
my  observation  permits  me  to  form  an  opinion, 
they  are  principally  the  victims  of  a  suspicion 
which  is  frequently  justified  by  facts.  They  are 
believed  to  be  created  and  dominated  by  men  who 
make  their  positions  in  the  labor  movement  an 
asset  in  their  efforts  for  personal  aggrandizement 
in  politics;  men  who  frequently  are  known  to  have 
intimate  affiliations  with  the  most  corrupt  and 
self-seeking  political  machines;  men  who  have 
already  been  beneficiaries  of  such  machines,  or 
who  are  shrewdly  suspected  of  being  animated 
by  lively  ambition  to  deserve  that  kind  of  favor. 
Such  "parties"  are  commonly  believed  to  be 
financed  by  one  or  the  other  of  the  principal 
parties  in  the  hope  of  making  a  diversion  from  its 
rival  which  shall  redound  to  its  own  benefit. 
Barring  such  tremendous  and  spontaneous  move- 
ments as  those  on  behalf  of  Henry  George  and 
WilUam  R.  Hearst,  they  are  regarded  with  dis- 
trust. Whether  these  suspicions  are  well  founded 
or  not,  they  are  nevertheless  so  generally  harbored 
[106] 


RELATED  THINGS 

that  such  "parties"  cannot  overcome  the  handicap 
saddled  upon  them  by  their  dubious  origin. 

But  none  of  this  can  be  said  of  the  Socialist 
party  and  of  those  who  compose  it.  Men  may 
question  their  wisdom,  think  slightingly  of  their 
judgment,  but  cannot  doubt  their  sincerity.  The 
way  of  material  advancement  for  the  unscrupulous 
self-seeker  does  not  lie  in  the  public  advocacy  of 
Socialist  doctrines.  Because  of  this  conviction 
of  the  truth  of  its  teachings,  because  of  the 
evident  enthusiasm  and  devotion  to  principle  of 
its  adherents,  the  Socialist  party  has  shown  virility 
and  growth.  Numbers  have  been  converted  to  it, 
and  larger  numbers  have  voted  with  it,  as  the  most 
effective  available  vehicle  for  the  protest  they 
felt  impelled  to  make  against  existing  political 
and  industrial  conditions.  Entirely  disregarding 
the  little  "labor"  parties,  it  is  worth  each  in- 
dividual's while  to  seriously  consider  his  political 
duty  towards  the  Socialist  party.  My  own  con- 
victions, reached  after  just  such  serious  considera- 
tion, are  (1)  that  individuality  is  too  potent  a  ) 
factor  in  human  nature  and  development  to  be 
submerged  to  the  extent  that  Socialism  would 
submerge  it,  and  (2)  that  class  consciousness,  or 
voluntary  segregation  ought  to  be  rejected. 
[  107  ] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

It  has  been  said  that  human  beings  are  like 
islands,  each  of  whom  has  in  spirit  and  mentahty 
no  point  of  contact  with  any  other.  The  conclu- 
sions which  are  here  advanced  are  my  own,  reached 
as  a  result  of  my  own  reflections,  and  to  what 
extent  they  are  valid  as  the  conclusions  which 
should  actuate  others,  each  island  will  decide 
for  himself.  Individualism  makes  itself  always 
and  everywhere  evident  in  the  desire  for  exclusive 
ownership  of  things.  This  tendency  of  human 
nature  has  been  overemphasized  until  it  has 
become  wolfish,  and  it  would  be  for  the  benefit 
of  humanity  if  the  rights  of  exclusive  ownership 
were  modified  in  respect  of  some  things.  It  is  a 
natural  and  proper  desire  as  applied  to  all  things 
which  are  the  result  of  human  production,  which 
are  made  by  a  man  himself  or  are  purchased  with 
the  fruits  of  his  own  labor;  it  is  not  a  proper 
desire  as  applied  to  that  which  no  man  can  either 
add  to  or  subtract  from,  which  is  not  the  work  of 
his  hands,  and  the  existence  of  which  is  a  sine 
qua  non  before  satisfaction  of  human  wants  can 
be  attempted.  I  will  not  be  mysterious:  the 
planet  itself  as  our  dwelling  place,  and  the  store- 
house from  which  we  must  obtain  subsistence, 
should  be  the  property  of  the  community.  The 
[108] 


RELATED  THINGS 

land,  the  water,  the  air,  and  that  which  may  be 
in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  should  not  be  the 
exclusive  property  of  an  individual,  and  the 
premium  which  an  individual  rightly  pays  for 
exclusive  use  of  these  should  be  paid  to  the  com- 
munity for  its  common  fund.  But  that  which  a 
man  has  constructed  or  purchased  for  the  purpose 
of  facilitating  his  use  of  the  planet, — that  should 
be  his  own  as  against  all  the  world. 

For  a  long  time  I  mentally  debated  whether  it 
was  my  duty  to  become  a  party  Socialist.  This 
question  of  what  the  individual  was  entitled  to 
exclusive  possession  of  was  to  me  a  stumbling 
block.  Then  I  read  "Progress  and  Poverty'* 
and  at  once  grasped  the  distinction  between  what 
is  naturally  the  common  heritage  and  what  is 
just  as  naturally  the  exclusive  property  of  the 
man  who  makes  or  earns  it,  and  I  became  a  con- 
vert to  the  doctrine  of  land  value  taxation — more 
familiarly  known  as  the  single  tax.  That  doctrine 
satisfied  both  the  social  and  individual  instincts 
within  me,  and  was  for  me  a  controlling  reason 
for  finally  deciding  against  alliance  with  the 
Socialist  party.  It  is  mentioned  here  incidentally 
in  support  of  my  contention  that  unions  ought  not 
to  be  partisan,  and  the  union  man  who  owns  a 
[109] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

j  little  home  and  fancies  I  wish  to  use  union  solidar- 
/  ity  to  take  it  from  him,  may  calm  his  fears  and 
need  not  chill  toward  the  actions  elsewhere  urged 
herein  upon  trades  unionists,  for  the  object  of  this 
book  is  wholly  directed  toward  improvement  of 
union  methods  of  organization  and  upbuilding, 
leaving  such  matters  as  this  for  independent  con- 
sideration. Certainly,  I  know  that  if  he  would 
examine  the  subject  he  would  find  the  compensa- 
tions of  relief  from  all  other  direct  and  indirect  tax 
burdens  upon  his  industry  far  outweigh  the  pay- 
ment to  the  community  of  the  full  rental  value  of 
his  land — land  only,  remember.  I  repeat,  how- 
ever, that  it  is  not  my  intention  to  write  a  disquisi- 
tion on  the  single  tax,  which  could  not  be  done  in 
the  space  assigned  to  this  brief  argument,  but 
merely  to  indicate  that  the  attitude  of  workingmen 
generally  toward  a  distinctive  workingmen's  party 
is  a  correct  one,  viewed  from  this  standpoint  of 
individualism,  even  though  it  may  not  have  been 
careful  reasoning  that  led  them  to  it,  and  even 
though  they  will  not  at  present  agree  that  the 
right  of  exclusive  ownership  should  be  restricted 
to  things  of  human  production. 

Relative  to  the  second  conclusion,  that  class 
consciousness  as  a  doctrine  ought  to  be  rejected, 
[110] 


RELATED  THINGS 

I  hold  that  the  interests  of  every  unit  in  a  com- 
munity are  inseparable  from  the  interests  of 
all  the  other  units.  Not  that  they  are  absolutely 
identical;  maladjustments  due  to  violations  of  the 
natural  law  that  natural  resources  ought  to  be 
equally  free  to  all  men  must  cause  clashes  in 
interest  between  those  who  have  succeeded  in 
monopolizing  natural  resources  and  those  who 
must  use  them  or  die.  But  the  line  of  cleavage 
is  not  between  employer  and  employed;  it  is 
between  monopolizer  and  user.  An  illustration 
may  serve  to  explain  this  more  clearly.  Let  us 
suppose  a  factory  located  on  a  river  and  dependent 
for  power  on  its  flow.  If  the  power  site  is  owned 
by  a  person  or  corporation  other  than  the  owner 
of  the  factory,  is  not  the  employer  equally  with 
his  employees  denied  access  to  and  use  of  the 
power  until  they  have  paid  tribute  to  the  owner 
of  the  power  site?  If  the  factory  is  run  by  steam, 
does  not  the  coal  mine  owner  stand  in  the  same 
relation  to  both  employer  and  employee.^  If  a 
merchant  wishes  to  use  a  site  for  business  purposes 
which  becomes  progressively  more  valuable,  are 
not  the  merchant  and  his  customers  (among 
whom  workingmen  are  included)  united  in  in- 
terest against  the  monopolizer  of  the  land,  who 
[111] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

continuously  absorbs  the  appreciation  of  site 
value  caused  by  the  energy  of  the  merchant  and 
the  presence  and  purchasing  power  of  the  people? 

Workingmen  as  a  class  feel  the  injury  more 
keenly  because  of  their  poverty  than  the  wealthier 
merchant  or  manufacturer,  but  the  difference  is 
one  of  degree,  and  not  of  kind;  its  influence  is 
exerted  against  every  individual  throughout  the 
thousand  and  one  gradations  that  make  up  so- 
ciety, for  we  must  all  use  natural  resources  for 
the  satisfaction  of  our  wants,  the  ownership  of 
which  is  confined  to  an  extremely  limited  number. 
For  this  reason,  therefore,  it  is  right  that  working- 
men  should  not  be  gathered  into  an  exclusive 
political  organization,  for  they  are  not  exclusive 
sufferers  from  this  condition. 

Again,  the  evils  that  unionism  seeks  legislative 
remedies  for  are  not  partisan  in  their  nature. 
The  elimination  of  child  labor,  the  proper  sanita- 
tion of  factories,  the  enactment  of  laws  assuring 
reasonable  compensation  for  injuries,  can  be  ob- 
tained by  the  unions  as  trade  organizations. 
The  members  of  unions  could  and  should  act 
concertedly  in  such  matters,  and  yet  there  would 
remain  too  many  points  upon  which  difference 
[112] 


RELATED  THINGS 

in  opinion  would  arise  among  them  to  permit  the 
maintenance  of  a  single  political  organization. 

The  history  of  Socialism  is  itself  proof  of  how 
questions  of  opinion  or  expediency  will  divide 
members  of  a  workingmen's  party.  In  the 
United  States  there  has  already  been  one  split, 
and  another  is  impending.  Even  the  marvelous 
German  Socialist  organization  has  more  than 
once  developed  formidable  differences  of  opinion 
which  threatened  secession.  Edward  Bernstein, 
a  German  Socialist  writer  of  note,  has  urged 
important  modifications  of  the  Marxian  theory, 
as  generally  interpreted  by  Socialists,  particularly 
in  regard  to  an  expected  class  war  between  an  ever 
diminishing  capitalist  class  and  an  ever  increasing 
proletariat.  Bernstein's  Socialism  is  distinctly 
progressive,  as  opposed  to  the  type  which  looks 
forward  to  a  collapse  of  the  capitalistic  order.  He 
therefore  rejects  the  policy  of  segregation.  Sup- 
porting the  social  growth  idea,  he  favors  co- 
operation with  non-socialist  efforts  that  make  for 
socialistic  growth.     He  speaks  of 

"  the  march  forward  of  the  working 
classes,  who  step  by  step  must  work  out 
their  emancipation  by  changing  society 
from  the  domain  of  a  commercial  land- 
holding  oligarchy  to  a  real  democracy, 
[113] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

which  in  all  its  departments  is  guided 
by  the  interests  of  those  who  work  and 
create.** 

That  rigidity  which  is  commonly  attributed  to 
Socialists  by  those  who  know  no  more  about 
them  than  that  they  exist,  is  mythical.  The 
English  parliamentary  group  is  frankly  oppor- 
tunist, as  Mr.  Henry  G.  Roberts,  on  a  recent 
visit  here,  told  me  in  conversation.  Victor 
Berger  and  his  Milwaukee  coadjutors  are  con- 
tinually under  the  suspicion  of  lapsing  toward 
opportunism.  Personal  friends  who  are  party 
members  have  confessed  to  me  that  they  consider 
the  tendency  toward  opportunism  as  irresistible, 
but  that  they  wish  to  withstand  it  as  long  as 
possible. 

For  example,  I  want  the  initiative,  referendum 
and  recall,  and  think  them  tools  for  our  further 
progress,  and  am  not  adverse  to  acting  with  any 
party  or  persons  to  get  them,  feeling  myself  not 
tied  to  any  a  moment  longer  than  they  serve  my 
purpose.  The  hidebound  partisanship  the  Social- 
ist complains  of  in  the  followers  of  the  old  parties 
is  notably  exemplified  in  himself;  most  humorously 
when  he  objects  to  the  partial  adoption  of  his 
program  by  others  as  theft. 
[114] 


RELATED  THINGS 

I  think  I  can  get  them,  and  for  the  present  I  care 
nothing  for  the  party  label  that  helps  me  get  them. 
That  is  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  there  should 
not  be  segregation  of  workingmen  in  an  exclusive 
party.  Other  men  not  mechanics  may  agree  with 
me  on  the  desirability  of  these  methods  of  govern- 
ment; I  shall  not  refuse  to  agree  with  them  and 
to  travel  with  them  so  long  as  our  destinations  are 
identical.     We  can  part  when  our  opinions  diverge. 

I  regard  the  ideal  state  of  a  voting  constituency 
as  one  in  which  each  voter  has  a  sufficiently  inde- 
pendent mind  to  feel  that  his  opinion  on  the  ruling 
issue  of  each  election  should  control  his  vote  in 
that  election,  and  that  partisanship  should  be  as 
fluid  as  the  changing  needs  of  the  community 
require  for  the  purpose  of  making  effective  the 
will  of  the  community. 

This  is  opportunism,  and  I  am  opportunist. 
To  the  man  who  hurls  that  at  me  as  a  reproach  I 
say:    You're  another — at  least  sometimes. 

The  advice  which  I  offer,  then,  is  that  the  prob- 
lems of  the  hour  be  settled  in  that  hour,  thru  any 
medium  and  in  conjunction  with  any  bodies  who 
think  similarly. 

If  this  book  is  favored  by  finding  readers  and 
critics,  I  expect  my  Socialist  friends  (among  whom 
[115] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

there  are  many  whom  I  respect  and  admire) 
to  accuse  me  of  flagrant  inconsistency  for  advo- 
cating wider  and  wider  co-operation  in  my  pre- 
ceding chapters,  and  now  declaring  against  their 
propaganda  as  an  entirety.  To  them  I  would 
point  out  this  difference:  They  seek  to  capture 
the  machinery  of  government  with  the  intention 
of  then  reorganizing  the  industrial  system.  I 
would  induce  ever  widening  co-operation  in 
industry  and  distribution,  and  let  evolution  lead 
us  where  it  will  as  regards  political  institutions. 
I  am  confident  that  the  political  machinery  will 
conform  itself  to  the  needs  of  the  industrial 
system  as  those  needs  are  developed.  Wider  co- 
operation undoubtedly  will  tend  to  unify  interests 
and  opinions  now  more  or  less  diverse,  and  political 
parties  have  always  been  Protean,  bound  to  as- 
sume the  form  and  color  of  the  masses  which 
compose  them.  A  co-operative  trading  society 
such  as  is  advocated  in  a  previous  chapter  would 
exert  political  influence  as  well  as  economical  in- 
fluence. Should  the  natural  outcome  of  ever 
widening  co-operation  be  the  formation  of  a 
co-operative  commonwealth  upon  the  lines  laid 
down  by  Socialist  writers,  with  the  state  as  the 
owner  of  all  the  means  of  production,  well  and 
[116] 


RELATED   THINGS 

good.  We  have  so  long  a  road  to  travel  that  we 
need  not  quarrel  now  about  finalities,  even  if 
finalities  are  possible.  But  I  would  extend  the 
same  welcome  to  any  other  solution  that  might  be 
evolved,  being  certain  that  mankind  is  on  its  up- 
ward way,  stumbling  and  halting  though  its  prog- 
ress may  be. 

The  report  of  President  Gompers  to  the  1911 
convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor, 
under  the  caption  of  "Political  Changes  Affecting 
Labor,"  contains  a  strong  indorsement  of  the  in- 
itiative and  referendum,  the  recall,  direct  nomina- 
tions, and  direct  election  of  Senators.  The  in- 
fluence of  these  methods  of  government  upon 
wage  scales  may  not  be  apparent,  but  their 
influence  upon  general  welfare  is  obvious.  And 
again  the  line  of  cleavage  in  such  matters  is  not 
between  employers  and  employed.  Working- 
men  as  well  as  others  are  divided  for  and  against 
such  propositions,  and  they  will  seek  political 
affiliations  in  accordance  with  their  opinions  and 
independently  of  their  trade  associations.  These 
are  issues  outside  the  bounds  of  parties;  at  least 
as  parties  are  now  constituted.  There  is  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  a  movement  for  what  are 
caUed  social  centers,  which  aim  to  gather  the 
[117] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

people  of  a  neighborhood  together  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  Hving  questions.  Schoolhouses  are 
generally  utilized  as  meeting  places,  and  in  some 
sections  the  school  buildings  are  planned  to  admit 
of  such  use.  Trades  unionists  might  well  assist 
such  a  movement,  and  it  will  be  a  crucible  in 
which  all  of  us,  union  man  and  non-union  man, 
employer  and  employed,  professional  man  and 
laborer,  will  give  something  and  receive  something, 
and  out  of  which  may  come  the  answer  of  how 
unionism  will  find  political  expression:  not  as  an 
army  blindly  obeying  officers,  but  as  individuals 
led  by  reasoning  to  identical  conclusions. 

To  sum  up,  both  benefit  and  injury  come  to  the 
great  body  of  citizenship  from  like  causes;  hence 
our  position  as  union  men  is  indivisible  from  our 
position  as  citizens,  and  political  segregation  is 
quite  as  impossible  as  segregation  in  any  other 
relation  of  life. 


[118] 


XII.    SUMMARY 

The  aim  of  trades  unionism  is  the  same  now  as 
it  has  always  been — to  secure  mutual  protection 
and  ad  van  tage  by  united  action.  But  the  problem 
of  trades  unionism  has  changed,  and  the  means 
whereby  such  mutual  protection  and  advantage 
are  to  be  secured  must  be  conformed  to  the  new 
conditions  that  have  arisen.  Rabbi  Wise  has 
told  us  we  must  more  than  ever  "Organize! 
Organize!  Organize!"  Does  that  mean  to  induce 
many  persons  to  become  members,  and  then  to 
regard  organization  as  completed.'*  Let  us  in- 
quire into  the  meaning  of  that  word  "organiza- 
tion." Webster  defines  it  as  "the  act  of  arranging 
in  a  systematic  way  for  use  or  action."  Such  a 
definition  of  organization  has  never  been  ap- 
plicable to  organized  labor.  We  have  never  ar- 
ranged in  a  systematic  way  the  power  inherent 
in  a  mass  of  men  for  use  or  action. 

There  are  two  ways  of  satisfying  the  instinct 
of  self-development — the  brutal  way  of  destroying 
or  thrusting  aside  who  and  what  stands  in  the 
[119] 


PROBLEMS   OF   ORCiANIZKD   LABOR 

way,  and  l.he  (^nli^hlcncd  sc^lfiHhncss  wliicli  rnakea 
others  useful  lo  il.S(;lf  l)y  rruikln^'  ilself  useful  to 
othc^rs.  It  is  not  a  rjuestiori  of  the  sincerity  of  a 
man  like  Williaui  I).  Haywood  and  those  who  fol- 
low liiiri.  It  may  well  be  that  he  is  filled  with  a 
consuming  fin^  which  urges  him  to  do  and  to  teach 
what  he  does  and  teaches  in  the  Ix-lief  and  expecta- 
tion that  it  is  th(;  way  to  him  th<;  f'fdy  way  -of 
uplifting  ;i,nd  hetUTing  mankind.  On(;  may  have 
considerahh;  res[)ect  for  the-  ch.ir.utcr  of  I);i,ntori 
and  y<vt  not  ;if)[)rov<'  I  he  methods  of  \\]c  Mount.'iin. 
Not  ahus(;  for  tin;  man,  not  personal  hatred,  hut 
unqualified  ofvposition  to  what,  he  preaches,  is 
my  sti'ind.  It  is  not  a  [X'rsori.d  d<;vil,  hut  an 
idea,,  with  which  w(^  rrmst  contend.  Let  us  not 
forg(;t  that  th(;y  danced  for  joy  in  Paris  wlutn 
Danton  was  dead  and  Ilol)es[>iern;  was  d<a.d. 
Because;  then  they  had  won  fr(!edom?  No;  Ixr- 
cause  then  they  ha,d  gairx-d  f)eacc  and  security, 
even  thougli  they  were  accompanied  l)y  a  rearttlon 
wlu(;h  ])Ia(r(;d  an  emperor  on  th<"  tlirorx;  of  a  king; 
which  left  them  with  th(t  same  [)rol)lems  of 
poverty  in  the  midst  of  [ilenty  which  they  had 
shed  so  much  hlood  to  solve.  "^I'lie  nnjrd(!rous 
vioh^nce  wln'ch  first  attacked  the  feudal  nohlcs  was 
ere  long  directed  against  those  whoiri  it  was  meant 
[  120  I 


SUMMARY 

to  save.  It  was  the  people  who  danced  for  joy 
when  the  Terror  had  spent  itself  and  the  emigres 
came  trooping  back.  You  will  say  it  rid  France 
of  feudalism.  True;  but  it  did  not  solve  the 
problem.     Only  changed  its  terms. 

Men  should  be  willing  to  fight.  It  may  well  be 
that  unless  they  are  willing  to  fight,  be  it  to  suffer 
hunger  in  a  strike,  or  to  suffer  death  in  a  battle, 
their  efforts  were  otherwise  vain.  But  that  is  not 
the  same  spirit  as  the  spirit  which  counsels  un- 
ceasing strife,  war  to  the  death,  with  no  quarter 
asked  and  none  given.  Jack  London,  in  "The 
Iron  Heel,"  has  visualized  the  gospel  of  Haywood. 
After  centuries  of  brutality  and  misery  he  pictures 
life,  and  light,  and  peace.  But  who  shall  say  that 
that  must  be  the  ending?  The  novelist,  omnipo- 
tent over  the  incidents  of  his  book,  may  choose 
to  make  it  so.  But  even  if  it  were,  is  that  game 
worth  the  candle  if  there  is  another  way? 

Such  a  way  there  is,  and  the  principle  of  it  is  a 
hundred  times  insisted  upon  in  this  book.  Vary 
the  terms  of  the  problem  as  you  will,  present  it  in 
its  myriad  phases,  yet  you  will  always  find  the 
solution  in  peaceful,  intelligent  co-operation.  The 
Golden  Rule  is  alive  in  it,  for  it  cannot  succeed 
f  121  1 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

without   mutual   helpfulness   and   consideration, 
and  it  cannot  fail  with  them. 

And  then  we  have  those  of  the  other  extreme, 
who  would  keep  the  crafts  apart  in  the  industries, 
and  as  far  as  possible  keep  the  individuals  apart 
in  the  crafts;  who  want  "old  fashioned  unionism," 
in  these  later  days  of  another  fashion.  To  them 
the  sole  function  of  a  union  is  to  get  more  wages, 
and  the  sole  means  of  getting  more  wages  is  to 
strike.  They  do  not  see  that  the  jacking  up  of 
wages  is  an  effort  which  very  soon  meets  the  law 
of  diminishing  returns.  Wages  too  low  for  decent 
subsistence  may  be  very  rapidly  advanced  by 
organization,  supplemented  by  the  willingness  to 
strike.  But  wages  which  have  reached  a  com- 
paratively high  standard  are  only  raised  by  an 
expenditure  of  energy  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
return,  and  each  succeeding  raise  requires  efforts 
inversely  proportioned  to  the  height  which  they 
have  already  attained.  Equally  they  do  not  see 
that  to  make  their  wages  buy  more  is  just  as  much 
a  raise  of  wages  as  more  dollars  in  the  pay  en- 
velope. "Keep  the  union  to  its  proper  func- 
tions," is  their  cry.  "Anything  that  can  serve 
us  and  strengthen  us  is  the  proper  function  of 
the  union,"  is  my  answer. 
[122] 


SUMMARY 

It  is  a  via  media  that  is  here  offered  between 
the  way  of  those  who  aim  at  revohition  and  the 
way  of  those  who  will  not  accept  evolution. 
Under  their  proper  heads  are  considered  plans 
which  are  to  the  advantage  of  union  men  as 
individuals,  but  which  have  the  much  greater 
merit  of  complementing  each  other  as  aids  to  the 
upbuilding  of  the  whole  system. 

Arbitration  agreements  will  help  us  turn  many 
ugly  corners,  and  they  will  not  be  one-sided 
agreements  when  made  with  a  highly  organized 
body  that  can  fight  and  will  fight  if  denied  sub- 
stantial justice.  Let  us  have  as  individuals 
what  opinions  we  may  as  to  the  righteousness  of 
the  existing  industrial  system;  it  will  neither 
be  mended  nor  ended  in  a  day.  But  while  we 
strive  for  betterment,  for  progress,  let  us  wisely 
recognize  that  we  must  all  live  on  this  footstool, 
and  let  us  make  the  terms  of  living  no  harsher 
than  the  needs  of  progress  compel. 

What  shall  be  done  to  lift  up  unskilled  labor 
and  that  skilled  labor  which,  by  reason  of  ig- 
norance of  the  language  and  lack  of  education, 
is  so  pre-eminently  marked  for  exploitation,  will 
give  us  much  to  reflect  upon.  Yet  I  believe  that 
organization  by  industry  will  greatly  alleviate 
[123] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

their  case.  An  aristocracy  of  labor  which  holds 
itself  aloof  from  the  humbler  toiler  is  in  no  wise 
difiFerent  from  an  aristocracy  of  birth  or  wealth 
which  holds  itself  superior  to  the  artisan.  Indus- 
trial organization  must  bring  into  its  fold  all  em- 
ployed in  a  certain  line  of  production,  must 
give  them  better  knowledge  of  each  other,  must 
induce  co-operation  among  them.  And  all  this 
must  tend  to  greater  diffusion  of  benefit,  instead 
of  the  narrow  prosperity  of  a  comparative  few, 
based  on  the  degradation  of  the  many. 

Insurance  benefits  have  been  sufficiently  con- 
sidered. Their  need  is  obvious  and  their  practi- 
cability assured.  Such  benefits  will  keep  the  wolf 
of  starvation  out  of  many  a  home,  even  if  they 
cannot  prevent  him  from  barking  at  the  door. 
As  a  means  of  binding  us  together  and  making  a 
union  card  a  valuable  asset,  it  is  difficult  to  over- 
estimate their  usefulness. 

We  should  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  against 
us  organization  is  being  highly  perfected.  Even 
strike-breaking  is  now  an  organized  industry. 
Furthermore,  whether  it  sounds  like  heresy  or  not, 
a  strike  breaker  has  a  right  to  work  in  our  places 
if  he  wants  to,  and  the  way  to  stop  him  is  not 
with  a  club,  for  he  has  anticipated  us  in  that 
[1241 


SUMMARY 

respect  and  has  secured  a  license  to  use  a  gun. 
But  we  will  stop  him  much  more  effectively  if  we 
let  both  him  and  his  product  severely  alone.  For 
that  reason  I  believe  the  co-operative  trading 
society  is  infinitely  the  most  important  suggestion 
offered,  and  the  adoption  of  it  alone  is  worth  more 
than  the  adoption  of  all  the  others  without  it. 
Its  effects  will  be  far  broader  and  deeper  than  the 
confines  of  trades  unionism.  If  it  was  successful 
at  all  it  would  bring  into  closer  relation  vast 
numbers  of  persons  who  have  now  no  direct  con- 
nection with  trades  unionism  and  only  distorted 
notions  of  trades  unionists.  Men  and  women 
not  employed  in  trades,  attracted  at  first  by  the 
purely  mercenary  considerations  of  saving  for 
themselves  the  extortionate  cost  of  supplying 
necessaries  through  an  army  of  unnecessary 
middlemen,  would  come  to  know  that  the  exist- 
ence of  trades  unionism  is  of  vital  benefit  to 
society,  as  a  force  which  combats,  and  sometimes 
combats  alone,  a  greed  that  might  otherwise  find 
no  check.  They  would  learn  that  its  efforts  for 
high  wages  widely  diffused  and  liberally  spent 
add  to  general  welfare  and  prosperity.  So 
learning,  they  would  no  longer  view  the  trades 
unionist  as  a  disturber  and  unconscionable  grafter, 
[  125  ] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

but  as  one  who  is  the  exemplar  of  a  limited  altru- 
ism which  can  be  made  to  include  themselves 
when  they  are  ready  to  apply  his  maxims.  And 
on  the  other  hand,  contact  and  mutual  labor  for 
the  co-operative  society  in  which  both  are  inter- 
ested would  give  the  unionist  a  clearer  conception 
of  the  fact  that  those  whom  he  now  so  frequently 
despises  as  sycophantic  counter  jumpers  and 
clerks  are  very  much  as  he  is  himself,  working 
under  like  conditions,  confronted  by  similar 
problems,  and  with  no  other  means  of  solving 
them.  Both  kinds  of  people  would  find  their 
mutual  prejudices  dissolving  before  the  more  and 
more  clear  perception  that  there  is  nothing  but 
their  prejudices  separating  them.  Such  co-opera- 
tion would  assist  in  the  establishment  of  real 
democracy,  for  community  of  interest  and  better 
acquaintance  must  tend  to  much  greater  uni- 
formity of  opinion  as  to  political  expression;  as 
regards  essentials,  at  least.  And  this  is  true  of 
union  men  as  well  as  of  those  who  are  employed 
in  occupations  that  know  no  unionism  as  yet. 
Their  unionism  is  far  too  contracted  in  scope  to 
bring  forth  the  fruit  that  true  unionism  would 
bear.  In  the  chapter  devoted  to  this  subject 
[126] 


SUMMARY 

its  direct  and  immediate  advantages  are  suflS- 
ciently  dilated  upon;  less  superficial,  but  in  the 
end  of  transcendent  importance,  are  the  ad- 
vantages which  must  follow  closer  acquaintance 
and  better  understanding  of  our  mutual  inter- 
dependence. 

Do  I  hear  sneers  and  note  signs  of  ridicule? 
Little  souls,  darkened  souls,  complacent  souls, 
mine  it  is  to  look  down  on  you,  not  you  on  me! 
For  I  stand  upon  a  great  height  and  can  see  far 
and  wide.  I  do  not  give  up  hope  of  seeing  with 
mine  own  eyes  at  least  an  approach  to  the  Land 
of  Promise.  For  men's  minds  are  strangely 
moved  in  these  days,  and  it  may  be  that  great 
things  are  impending.  Surely  the  time  is  fast 
ripening.  But  if  it  be  not  yet,  nor  even  soon, 
then  nevertheless  it  is  given  to  me  to  know  that 
along  some  such  road  as  this,  under  some  such 
banner  as  this,  the  army  of  advancing  mankind 
shall  march.  And  the  words  that  are  me  shall 
live  when  the  dust  that  was  me  hath  moldered. 

What  Shall  We  Do?   is  a  pregnant  question 

which   must   be   answered.     I   have   prayed   for 

wisdom  to  find  the  truth  and  for  the  power  of 

language  to  impart  it.     To  me  this  little  book 

[  127  ] 


PROBLEMS  OF  ORGANIZED  LABOR 

has  been  a  solemn  work.  Of  the  reader  I  ask  an 
open  mind,  and  to  my  last  conscious  moment  I 
will  thank  Him  who  gave  me  the  faculty  to  write 
the  book  if  from  it  there  shall  spring  aught  of 
advantage  to  the  cause  of  organized  labor. 

THE   END 


[128] 


INDEX 

FAGB 

A.  F.  of  L 22,  72,  90,  101,  117 

American,  Strike  on  Chicago 35  et  seq. 

Apprentice,  The 76  et  seq. 

Arbitration H  et  seq. 

compulsory 45 

in  cloak  industry 46 

in  printing  industry 47 

in  Germany 48  e<  seq. 

Assessments  for  insurance  benefits.  Percentage  plan  of . .  60  et  seq. 

Backward,  A  Glance 4 

Benefits,  Insurance 55  et  seq. 

against  death 58  et  seq. 

"      sickness 5S  et  seq. 

"      unemployment 55,  64,  73 

of  Cigarmakers'  International  Union 61  et  seq. 

of  International  Typographical  Union 62  ei  seq. 

old  age  pensions 65  et  seq. 

percentage  plan  of  assessments  for 60  et  seq. 

Berger,  Victor 113 

Bernstein,  Edward 113 

Berry,  President,  International  Union  of  Printing  Press- 
men       37  et  seq. 

Boycott,  The Si,  88  et  seq. 

Buck  Stove  and  Range  Company,  boycott  on 90 

Butterick  Company,  boycott  on 90 

By  Way  of  Explanation 28  et  seq. 

C.  G.  T.  (Confederation  Generate  du  Travail) ....  19  ef  seq.,  33 

Cherouny,  Henry  W 48 

Chicago  American,  strike  on 35  et  seq. 

[129] 


INDEX 

I  PAGB 

Cigarmakers'  International  Union 61  et  seq.,  95,  99 

insurance  against  death 5S  et  seq. 

"  "       sickness 58  et  seq. 

"  "       unemployment 55,  64,  73 

label  of 95,  99 

Cloak  industry,  arbitration  in 46 

Compulsory  arbitration 45 

Co-operative  Trading 84  e<  seq.,  125 

boycott,  the Si,  88  et  seq. 

high  cost  of  Uving,  the 86  et  seq. 

label,  the Si,  88  et  seq. 

Rochdale  pioneers 100 

Direct  Action 6,  14  e<  seq. 

Explanation,  By  Way  of i8  et  seq. 

Farmers'  Educational  and  Co-operative  Union  of  America  101 
Freel,  President,  International  Stereotypers'  Union 37 

General  Strike 15  et  seq. 

George,  Henry 106 

Glance  Backward,  A 4 

Golden  Rule 121 

Gompers,  President,  A.  F.  of  L 117 

Harvester  Company,  International,  pension  plan  of ... .     69 

Haywood,  William  D 120 

Hearst,  William  R 105,  106 

High  cost  of  living 86  et  seq. 

Howard,  Judge 87 

Initiative,  referendum  and  recall 114,  115 

Injunctions,  writs  of,  in  strikes 7 

Insurance  Benefits 55  et  seq. 

against  death 58  et  seq. 

"       sickness 58  et  seq. 

"       unemployment 55,  64,  73 

of  Cigarmakers'  International  Union 61  e^  seq. 

[130] 


INDEX 

PA<3B 

Insurance  of  International  Typographical  Union 62  e<  seq. 

old  age  pensions 65  et  seq. 

percentage  plan  of  assessments  for QO  et  seq. 

International  Harvester  Company,  pension  plan  of 69 

International  Unions — 

Cigarmakers' 55  et  seq.,  95,  99 

insurance  against  death 58  et  seq. 

"  "       sickness 58  et  seq. 

"  "       unemployment 55,  64,  73 

label  of 95,  99 

Printing  Pressmen S7  et  seq. 

President  Berry 37  et  seq. 

Stereotypers' S7  et  seq. 

President  Freel 37  ei  seq. 

Typographical 37,  47,  62  et  seq.,  90 

boycott  on  Butterick  Company 90 

insurance  benefits  of 6i  et  seq. 

old  age  pension  plan  of 72 

President  Lynch S7  et  seq. 

strike  on  Chicago  American 35  et  seq. 

Iron  Heel,  The 121  et  seq. 

Irritation  Strike 15  et  seq. 

I.  W.  W.  (Industrial  Workers  of  the  World),  21  et  seq.,  33, 

42,  45,  119  et  seq. 

C.  G.  T 19  et  seq.,  33 

general  strike 15  et  seq. 

Haywood,  William  D 120 

irritation  strike 15  et  seq. 

Sabotage 17  et  seq. 

Sorel,  George 20,  24 

Label,  The 32,  88  et  seq. 

Labor  parties 105  et  seq. 

Labor,  unskilled 23,  24,  123 

Lawrence,  strike  at 12 

Life  insurance 58  et  seq. 

Limoges,  meeting  at 19 

[131] 


INDEX 

PAOB 

London,  Jack 121 

Los  Angeles  outrage 2,  11 

Lynch,  President,  International  Typographical  Union . .     37  et  seq. 

McNamaras 1,  6,  11 

Mazzini,  Words  of 2 

Nantes,  meeting  at 18 

Newspaper  Publishers  Association  of  North  America. .  .35,  47 

Old  age  pensions 65  et  seq. 

Opportunism 115 

Organization  by  Industry 23,  33  et  seq.,  42  et  seq. 

Organization,  Definition  of 119 

Parties,  labor 105  et  seq. 

Pensions,  old  age 65  et  seq. 

plan  of  International  Harvester  Co 69 

"       International  Typographical  Union 72 

U.  S.  Steel  Corporation 68,  69 

Picket  line 7  et  seq. 

Pressmen,  International  Union  of  Printing 37 

President  Berry,  of 37 

strike  on  Chicago  American 35  et  seq. 

Printing  industry,  arbitration  in 47 

in  Germany,  arbitration  in iS  et  seq. 

"  Progress  and  Poverty  " 109 

Rabbi  Stephen  S.  Wise 21,  99,  119 

Related  Things 103  et  seq. 

Roberts,  Henry  G 114 

Rochdale  pioneers 100 

"Romance  of  Words" 17 

Sabotage 17  et  seq. 

Schoolhouses  as  social  centers 118 

Sickness,  insurance  against 58  et  seq. 

Single  tax 109  et  seq. 

Social  centers,  schoolhouses  as 118 

[132] 


INDEX 

PAGB 

Socialism 14,  16,  106  et  seq. 

Berger,  Victor 114 

Bernstein,  Edward 113 

Roberts,  Henry  G 114 

Sorel,  George 20,  24 

StefFens,  Lincoln 2 

Stereotypers,  International  Union 37 

President  Freel,  of 37 

strike  on  Chicago  American 35  et  seq. 

Strike,  The 5.  li.  15  et  seq.,  29,  35  et  seq.,  51  et  seq. 

at  Lawrence 12 

general 15  et  seq. 

irritation 15  et  seq. 

on  Chicago  American S5  et  seq. 

Strikes,  picket  line  in 7  et  seq. 

violence  in 7  et  seq. 

writs  of  injmiction  in 7 

Summary 119  et  seq. 

Syndicalism 6,  14  et  seq.,  41,  42,   119  et  seq. 

C.  G.  T 19  et  seq.,  33 

general  strike 15  et  seq. 

Haywood,  William  D 120 

history  of,  in  France 18  et  seq. 

irritation  strike 15  et  seq. 

"Iron  Heel,  The" 121 

I.  W.  W 6,  tl  et  seq.,  33,  ^i.  45,  119  et  seq. 

London,  Jack 121 

organization  by  industry 23,  41 

sabotage 17  et  seq. 

Sorel,  George 20,  24 

syndicats  jaunes 18  et  seq. 

"         rouges 18  ei  seq. 

Taft,  President 2 

Trading,  Co-operative 84  et  seq.,  125 

boycott,  the 3i,  88  et  seq. 

high  cost  of  living 86  et  seq. 

[133] 


INDEX 

PAGB 

Trading  label,  the 32,  88  et  seq. 

Rochdale  pioneers 100 

Typographical  Union,  International 37,  47,  62  et  seq. 

boycott  on  Butterick  Company 90  et  seq. 

insurance  benefits  of 62  et  seq. 

President  Lynch  of 37  et  seq. 

strike  on  Chicago  American 35  et  seq. 

Unemployment,  insurance  against 55,  64,  73 

Union,  function  of  the 31,  122 

United  States  Steel  Corporation,  pension  plan  of 68  et  seq. 

Unskilled  labor 23,  24,  123 

Violence  in  strikes 7  et  seq. 

Webster's  definition  of  "organization" 119 

Weekley,  Ernest 17 

What  Shall  We  Do? 1 

Wise,  Rabbi  Stephen  S 21,  99,  119 

Words  of  Mazzini 2 


[134] 


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studies  in  Labor  and  Social  Movements 
By  JOHN  GRAHAM  BROOKS 
Cloth,  12mo,  394  pages,  $1.50  net 

"Mr.  Brooks  has  given  the  name  of  'Social  Unrest'  to  his  profound  study, 
primarily  of  American  conditions,  but  incidentally  of  conditions  in  all  the 
civilized  countries.  The  book  is  not  easy  reading,  but  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  a  volume  which  would  better  repay  thorough  digestion  than  this.  It 
expresses  with  absolute  justice,  I  think,  the  conflicting  interests.  It  shows  the 
fallacies  of  many  socialistic  ideals.  It  admits  the  errors  of  the  unions.  It 
understands  the  prejudices  of  the  rich  and  the  nature  of  their  fear  when  present 
arrangements  are  threatened.  And  the  sole  purpose  of  the  author  is  to  state 
the  truth,  without  preference,  without  passion,  as  it  appears  to  one  who  has 
seen  much  and  who  cares  how  his  fellowman  enjoys  and  suffers. 

"Mr.  Brooks  does  not  guess.  He  has  been  in  the  mines,  in  the  factories, 
knowing  the  laborers,  knowing  the  employers,  through  twenty  years  of  investi- 
gation."— Collier's  Weekly. 


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Institute  of  Industrial  Relations 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles  24,  California 


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